At first glance, one may find Anne Stevenson’s “The Victory” an example of an embittered woman who is frustrated with her new life as a mother, and on the other hand, some readers may find Sylvia Plath’s “Metaphors” less negative and even ironic due to its playful structure and her choice of words. Both poems have the same topic, namely giving birth to a child and pregnancy respectively. The main difference, however, is that Stevenson emphasizes her physical pain and Plath, on the other hand, stresses her mental pain. I believe that, although both poems involve a tone of conflict, Stevenson concludes with a much more positive tone whereas Plath leaves the end rather unsolved. By examining the diction, titles and imagery that both poets use to convey the tone, I will demonstrate that the speaker in Stevenson’s poem loves her son, despite all the physical pain she has had to go through. Plath’s speaker, on the contrary, is quite uncertain and develops a rather unhappy tone.
First of all, the voice that speaks to us is in both cases the ‘I’-speaker and at the same time the poets themselves who reveal their feelings about childbirth (pregnancy) to the reader. Stevenson addresses her baby, “small son” (14) whereas Plath speaks to herself.
The diction that is used in both poems has a primarily negative connotation. Stevenson emphasizes the negative emotions caused by the pain, “you cut me like a knife” (2) and the demands, “knot of desires” (13) a newborn baby makes. Whereas Stevenson’s language is rather unusual and shocking by describing her baby inhumanely, for example “blind thing”, “insect” or “snarl” (10-14), Plath uses rather comical expressions to describe her stomach’s size like “a ponderous house” (2) or a rising “loaf” (5). At the same time these words suggest her unease at the disproportion of her body which conveys a sense of discontent and a rather depressive image of a woman who doesn’t like herself anymore. By describing herself as a “cow giving...