Summary
Summary Mirror IEB Poem
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In depth line by line analysis of Mirror by Sylvia Plath for Grade 12 IEB Poetry
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Mirror - Sylvia PlathI am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
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 | 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 ode woman
Rises towards her day after day, like a terrible fish
, Analysis
Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror" is renowned for its profound exploration of
aging and mortality. Plath penned this poem in 1961, shortly after giving birth
to her first child, Frieda. It's possible that this significant life event spurred
her to delve into these themes, as becoming a parent often leads to
contemplation about the fleeting nature of life and human mortality. Plath
frequently expressed her apprehensions about growing older in her journals
and articulated a sense of sadness about time slipping away as she aged.
Nevertheless, the themes of aging and death are universal, and few
individuals remain entirely unconcerned about these inevitabilities. As the title
suggests, the poem adopts the perspective of a personified mirror, which
reflects on its own existence and that of its owner—a woman who
undergoes the aging process under what the mirror perceives as its dutiful,
impassive, and objective observation. Despite its brevity, the poem manages
to explore fundamental aspects of reality, representation, appearances,
and the quest for identity and deeper self-understanding.
Structure
The poem consists of two stanzas, each comprising nine lines. It adheres to
a modernist style, characterized by free verse, devoid of a fixed rhyme
scheme or regular meter. The poem's meter is irregular, with varying line
lengths and no consistent pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Nonetheless, Plath effectively employs techniques such as enjambment,
internal and half rhymes, and repetitive phrases to establish a natural and
graceful rhythm within the verse. For instance, the second line contains an
internal rhyme with "see" and "immediately," along with enjambment that
contributes to the poem's smooth flow. The repetition of phrases like "over
and over" and "day after day" imparts rhythm and cohesiveness to the
poem.
Title
The poem's title is both revealing and intriguing. By explicitly naming the
subject of the poem, Plath avoids turning it into a mere puzzle or riddle to
decipher, which might divert the reader from its deeper message. Moreover,
the title surprises readers because it initially suggests that the poem is
about a mirror, but the first line quickly subverts that expectation by
revealing that the poem is written from the mirror's perspective. This title
also provokes contemplation about the role mirrors play in our lives, our
relationship with mirrors, and the broader concepts of reflection,
representation, and imitation
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