1) The semantic fields of Christianity – holy Joes, Christ, religion, communion
Animals – bat, newts, fish, piranha
The effect of semantic fields helps to draw and bring certain ideas/ themes together, and may give an idea of what the poem is actually about, or what themes the poet is trying to draw on.

2) The use of repetition in the 11th stanza – Love, love
There are other uses of repetition such as “You are” and “Let the”
Repetition is usually used within poetry because the writer is trying to express an emotion or a phrase. In Plath’s case,

3) In the eighth stanza of the poem, the focus begins to change. In the first seven stanzas, Plath appears to be talking about herself, however, after her use of the rhetorical question “O love, how did you get here?” she seems to be talking about her baby instead, and talking to her baby as a pose to talking about herself and her feelings.

4) The use of rhetorical question in the eighth stanza could be the poet attempting to understand her feelings as she is unsure of what to think, and perhaps the poet does not expect anyone to comprehend how she feels or know what she means.

5) In the tenth stanza, the poet compares her child to a ruby. A ruby is a jewel and the fact she is comparing her child to something so precious and delicate is very positive. Before calling her child a ruby, she says “the blood blooms clean in you, Ruby” suggesting there is no sin in this jewel of a child.

6) “The pain you wake up to is not yours” It is the world's pain to which the innocent child must gradually accommodate, but not yet, and not in this poem.

7) You are the baby in the barn." Plath is awed by the baby’s ability to survive, in what Plath believes is a hostile environment.
The baby in the barn, could refer to Jesus, and makes her child symbolic of hope and all that is holy to her.

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