FOR YOU GUYS TO TALK ABOUT! DO YOU WORK NEXT TIME!
MiRROR BY SYLViA PLATH
Bryan: The audience is intended to be for the poet herself which is Sylvia Plath. The genre of the poem is autobiographical—in order words it a confession poetry. Mirror was written in the year 1961, which is three years before she committed suicide.
Justin:If you observe the poem, notice that it is consisted with short sentences. This is because Plath is trying to say the least possible to convey a complicated thought abundant with underlying meanings. On the other hand the longer sentences provide more explanation towards her mysterious thoughts. This serves to impose emotions and personality averting (avoiding) a usual dull boring poem. This poem is also metaphoric stance, in which long sentences could recollect the eternity of aging in comparison to temporary youth.
SO IN OTHER WORDS… THE SHORT SENTENCES REFLECTS A CHILD. And the long sentences reflect as the adult.
SOMEONE READ THE POEM AND SOMEONE READ THE DESCRIPTION.. ALTERNATE. SO EVERYONE GETS A PART! THIS IS HOW I EXPLAINED IT LAST TIME.. IF YOU GUYS WERE PAYING ATTENTION. JUST READ!
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
This shows physical appearance and value of the mirror. Silver is described to be something that is precious almost like diamond, and exact clearly means that it is accurate with no approximations. Over all the mirror (which is the object itself) has no opinions. But is merely just an object personifying Plath. Whatever I see I swallow immediately.
Just as it is unmisted by love or dislike.
Plath says the mirror swallow immediately which means that it accept Plath—it does not spit her out OR REJECT her. Again these lines says there is no opinion— because it doesn’t choose what it wants to show. I am not cruel, only truthful—
This line is pretty explanatory, which basically means what you see is what you get. The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
The eye is visionary so it sees everything that is happening around the place. IN this case the mirror has superiority over Plath. It is worshipped. Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
Again this is pretty explanatory… in this case Plath has made this setting a sanctuary.. the mirror is something she worships. So by saying “I meditate on the opposite wall” clearly says that this is some kind of a ritual. It is pink with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Again notice that the lines consists of short sentences. Pink with speckles represents a little girl. Then if you look back to the same line it says “I have looked at it so long” which tells up that she thinks about her past too much that she has a relationship with it. Then it says.. But it flickers. It is unclear to her.. there are some memories that are sometimes unclear. Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
When the light is off and Plath is not facing the mirror.. there is a separation between the two.
SECOND STANZA: Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
This is now a long sentence in which represents maturity. The lake represents a basin in the bathroom. It means more depth. If you take a look at a structure of a mirror it’s thin, which basically reflects an identity that can be easily understood. However the lake is thick with water—which is unclear when looking at your reflection. The lake signifies more meaning than of the surface. So what its trying to say is that Plath wants to see her true identity beyond the surface. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
For example: when taking a picture.. some people might look better in dark pictures some might look better in brighter pictures… so the light has something to do with hiding imperfections and this is what Plath is trying to do… hide herself in the darkness so she will not see the impurities that brighter lights expose. 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
This shows that she is dependent on the mirror. In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman,
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Drowned was an involuntary sign of murder. The girl was still there but she’s just trapped in the past. So she’s practically dead and only lives in memories. In other words, this was a process of aging that Plath witnessed. The fish basically represents an ugly pouty animal that reflect Plath as an old lady.
