The life of the baby is set going like a ‘fat gold watch’ just been wound up, also this could refer to the ticking noises a watch makes as the baby’s heartbeat. The midwife slaps the baby’s foot soles, to start its breathing, the baby takes its place upon the elements; it has taken its place among the living creatures. The echoing voices are the “oohs and aahs”, cries of joy from parents and others. The baby is like a new statue, an object that’s “new in the collection”, it’s someone the people in the room have never seen before.
(The distant view of the situation that’s shared by Plath is her typical style of writing, it reflects her mind state and way of thought. ) The nakedness of the baby makes the others in the room feel more comfortable because they’re all dressed. The connection between the relation cloud and the shadow and mother and baby reflects again the mind state of Plath very well.
She looks upon her newborn child, like a cloud would look at its shadow reflecting herself.
The “effacement” is the growing apart of mother and child, that will now begin to take place. She has carried the baby with her, as close as can be, from now on, child and mother will only grow further apart. The “pink roses” is the blanket, the child, breathes on with a “moth breath”. The far sea is of course, the constant noise of the baby, the mother has a sixth sense for.
The second the mother hears a noise, she will go to the baby, stumbling “cow heavy” (she is still very heavy because of her pregnancy) in her Victorian stile nightgown.
The baby tries it’s vocabulary, some vowels. Cloud analysis. It doesn’t refer to the mother and baby growing further apart, since the second stanza implies that the mother now understand what the baby wants, she comprehends its cries, which are now “clear vowels”. Cow heavy, I think this should be amended. Cow heavy would refer to her breasts and lactation rather than pregnancy weight. I am sorry that this last page is in note form, will write it up.