rat in a pickle jug” gives an impression of immense comfort and security. This sense of comfort is picked up again later, in both By Candlelight (“Balled hedgehog,” “I rock you like a boat”,) and Nick and the Candlestick (“wrap me, raggy shawls”.) It is emphasised by a feeling of enthusiasm and satisfaction: “Right, like a well-done sum.” The mother feels that what she is doing is right, and that she is enjoying it. She looks upon her pregnancy with contentment, while accepting the way that it must be: “Mute as a turnip from the Fourth/ Of July to All Fools’ Day,/ O high-riser, my little loaf.” The mother’s recognition that the baby is unable to speak shows how much she appreciates the other forms of communication that exist between her child and herself. The irony of Independence Day being the first day of the baby’s dependence on her mother doesn’t seem to have any particular significance, but the reference to All Fools’ Day implies that both the foetus and mother are enjoying themselves, as well as simply being nine months after July 4th. She appears excited and expectant, and seems to be enjoying the fact that what lies ahead is unknown. She suggests that before birth, her baby’s future is wholly undetermined, emphasised by “Vague as fog and looked for like mail”, while “Farther off than Australia” implies that she believes it to be a long way away. She doesn’t comment on the fact that it is silent, obscure and distant, which would seem to indicate that she simply accepts that her pregnancy will progress in this way, and that there would be nothing that she could do about it even if she was unsatisfied. The narrator’s seemingly ambivalent attitude continues into Morning Song. The tone is both descriptive and observant, focusing on the change of scene for both the baby and the mother. There seems t...
