قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

من طرف **Master** الأحد نوفمبر 07, 2010 7:47 am

Mirror
By: Sylvia Plath

Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful --
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
- Meanings of words:
Silver: material
Preconceptions: idea taken before experience.
Swallow: eat.
Unmisted: very clear.
Cruel: just.
Meditate: think deeply.
Speckles: spots.
Flickers: between darkness and light.
Bend: to twist.
Reward: give a prize.
Agitation: angry and scream.
Drawn: sink.
Rise: come up.
Terrible: horrible.
- Paraphrase:
The poem consists of two stanzas. In the first stanza, the mirror is talking about herself. In the second stanza, the mirror is talking about a woman. The first stanza focuses on the mirror speaking about herself as if she was a human. She says that I am silver and exact because she does not change anything, swallow thing as it is. Also, the mirror’s reflections are clear. She says that love and hate does not affect my reflection, it is truthful. She says that she is not cruel. The mirror is like the eye of a little god, see things as it is. If the mirror is a judge she will be fair.
The second stanza talks about a woman who gets older. The mirror is compare to the lake when she says “now I am a lake”. The similarity between the mirror and the lake that they both reflect image as it is. The story of the woman is like the myth of Narcissus, who became found of this reflection on the lake and drowns while he wants to become close to the image. The similarity between the women and Narcissus the mythical character makes us sympathies with the woman for losing her beauty rather than criticize her vanity. The woman comes to see herself every morning. The mirror is important for the woman although she is unhappy because she becomes older and loses her beauty. The beauty of the young girl dyes and drowns. Then, this beauty turns into ugliness. The woman does not see the truth she uses the candle and the moon to make her younger and beautiful by doing this the candle and the moon are liars. As the woman is drowning, she replaced to become an ugly fish. The mirror sympathies with the woman and says that I am straight forward, exact, not romantic, and not soft hearted.

- The theme:
This poem does not consider women as vain rather than sympathizes with them. The poem is not criticism of women who care about their beauty, but reflect their feelings of losing their beauty through age. The poem shows the feelings of a woman who is losing her beauty and getting old and not being able to understand the fact of aging. It is very hard and tragic for women to become old and to lose their youth. Women resist these facts and try to ignore it.
- The speaker:
The choice of the speaker in this poem is very skillful because the mirror is a material who cannot feel she just reflects image, but toward the end she starts to sympathy with the woman. The speaker in this poem is the mirror. The mirror speaks about herself in the first stanza as if she is a person. She describes herself as clear, truthful, and fair. Also, she says that she is like the eye of a little god. In the second stanza she tells us a story about a woman who become old and how the mirror sympathizes with her although at the beginning she says that she is not romantic and does not has a soft heart.
- The figures of speech:
Personification:
1) Candle and moon are liars.
2) The mirror as animate object takes the quality of human beings.
Metaphors:
1) The mirror compared itself with a God and the similarity between them that they are both truthful and exact in judging.
2) The mirror compared itself with a lake and the similarity between them that they both reflect the images as they are.
Simile:
The woman becomes “like a terrible fish” and the similarity between them that they are both ugly. The beauty of the woman disappear with age as drowning little girl.

من طرف **إبن البلد** الإثنين نوفمبر 08, 2010 11:56 pm

analysis
does anyone else think that the woman in the poem is looking into the mirror in search of herself? because from what i've read about plath as a person she suffered from an identity crisis of sorts and her search in the mirror could have to do with her search for self. any comments would be appreciated

Good poem

Thanks a lot

من طرف **Master** الأحد نوفمبر 28, 2010 8:47 pm

thanks for ur comment dear cousin

من طرف **سعد الدهيمي** الجمعة فبراير 25, 2011 1:11 am

thanks

من طرف **Master** الأحد مارس 27, 2011 3:34 am

welcome

قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

رد: قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

رد: قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

رد: قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath

رد: قصيدة Mirror by Sylvia Plath