Sylvia Plath had two children, Frieda born in 1960 and Nicholas born in 1962. This poem describes the joy, fear and anticipation of pregnancy and will chime with women who have been through the experience of having children. It is heartening to know that there were times when Sylvia Plath was happy, given her battles with depression.

Structure
Unlike Plath’s usual organised method of two, three, four or five line stanzas, she chose here two stanzas of nine lines each, possibly signifying the nine months of pregnancy and, because it was written before the birth of her son, the second of her two children.

Language and Imagery
Plath uses her usual concise, dense and complex imagery. Here the ideas are wide-ranging, taking the reader on imaginary journeys to Australia and Mexico, and using vegetable and animal imagery to describe her unborn foetus. Even so, unlike some of her more obscure poems, this is relatively accessible and understandable.