Hello and welcome to the Discourse. “Mirror” is a poem by Sylvia Plath that she wrote in 1961 after giving birth to her first child. The poem was published in The New Yorker in 1963 and later on, it was published in her posthumous poetry collection ‘Crossing the Water.’ The theme of the poem is ‘time and appearance.’ The speaker is a mirror who observes an aging woman through its silver and piercing eyes. The woman is troubled by the changes in her physical appearance as she sees aging and decadence. The mirror reminds her of mortality which she fears. The poem also accuses the rigid standards of beauty and youth to which women are often expected to conform. The poem offers an idea of what is important to the female character from the point of view of a mirror, an unbiased speaker. The mirror observes that the very parts of the woman’s body that patriarchal society deems most valuable are also the parts of her that are fading away their glory and attraction. The woman is preoccupied by her reflection reminding the Greek myth of Narcissus, in which a young man grows so transfixed with his own reflection that he dies. It should be noted that Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963. The poem also alludes to the fairytale Sleeping Beauty, where the vain, Wicked Queen looks into her mirror to ask, "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"
Structure of ‘Mirror’: The poem is written in free verse, which means that it has no set pattern of rhythm or rhyme, not even end rhymes. However, there are internal slant rhymes. The poem has two stanzas of nine lines each. In the first stanza, the mirror introduces itself as the speaker, offering the qualities of a mirror and its unbiased, truthful nature. The second stanza offers an unbiased image of the woman that the mirror sees. The poet has used personification (Mirror is the speaker), symbolism, imagery, metaphor, simile, allusion, enjambment, consonance, and assonance in the poem.
Summary of Mirror:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-4
“I 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 speaker is the mirror, which describes itself as an unbiased, passive rectangle of silver, glass, and a shiny surface that only tells the truth and has no other purpose. Mirrors have no prior knowledge of anything; they simply are. The mirror uses first person narrative (I) suggesting a direct and straightforward voice. The mirror says it ‘swallows immediately’ whatever it sees, ‘just as it is,’ without embellishment or deception. In the next line, the mirror says that it is not savage, or cruel, it just remains unbiased, and truthful. The mirror neither loves nor hates whatever he sees, he remains free of any preconceived notion, suggesting the non-discriminatory nature of the mirror.
Stanza 1 Lines 5-9
“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.”
The mirror expresses itself as the eye of god that sees everything that comes into its view. Like an omniscient god, the mirror gets a multi-dimensional view, nothing can deceive the mirror, it sees things as they are. “four cornered’ is a metaphor suggesting that the mirror is aware of all the four dimensions. It also suggests the rectangular shape of the mirror. Most of the time, the mirror "meditates on the opposite wall," as an open-eyed, staring sage, the mirror sits contemplatively. In the next line, the mirror suggests its feminine nature. The mirror says that it has observed the pink wall for so long as if it is a part of its heart. The mirror gives the idea that the person using that mirror is probably a woman. Pink is associated with feminine things, but the connection isn't that clear. In line 8, ‘it’ is the pink wall, and in line 9, ‘us’ refers to the image of the wall, which is the amalgamation of the wall and the mirror. The mirror states that his sage-like steady view is often interrupted by darkness and individuals standing between it and the wall.
Stanza 2 Lines 10-13
“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.”
In the second stanza, the mirror expresses itself as a still, freshwater lake. It is a metaphor, the mirror becomes deep, reflective water. Like a mirror, the steady surface of a clean lake offers an exact image or reflection. However, the lake is liquid, and so are the tears. The mirror introduces a woman who often sees into the mirror, trying to ascertain herself. Because she's looking at a lake and not a mirror, the woman must bend over to see the reflection of her face.
She looks at the mirror very closely, delving deep into it, trying to search for the beauty and youth that time has robbed her of. The mirror, the lake, is honest and truthful but the woman isn’t satisfied by the truth or she is afraid of it. The mirror mentions more inanimate objects like ‘candles’ and ‘moon’ and calls them ‘liars’ (personification), because their light can warp sight, often hiding people's blemishes and making them appear more beautiful. Unlike the candle or the moon, who deceive, the mirror or the lake, is honest and shows how the woman is. However, the woman prefers light, or the deceivers hiding her aging beauty and blemishes. When the woman is turned away, to look at the lying moon and candles, the mirror is still there, reflecting her back, faithfully showing the truth.
Stanza 2 Lines 14-18
“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.”
Though the woman prefers the deception or wants them, she realizes the truthfulness of the mirror, and that brings tears to her. But those tears are a reward for the mirror, for expressing the truth, the mirror is unbiased. To ascertain herself, the woman rubs the mirror, to get a clearer, better reflection, but the mirror is truthful. Her agitation, her tears, and her wavering hands may disturb the lake for a while, creating ripples, but soon it settles and the mirror offers the truthful image again. The mirror, and thus, the reflection of the woman, or her appearance is important to her, and as it changes, it brings melancholy, depression, and tears to her. The mirror observes how the glow of the woman is turning into darkness. In the mirror (or lake), the woman has drowned a young girl, herself, she has lost her youth. Every day, she observes the mirror and sees an old woman rising from the lake. The woman's reflection is changing and aging. She sees herself growing into an old woman. Drowning and rising in the lake metaphorically describe aging. Replacing the young girl daily is the face of an old woman, surfacing "like a terrible fish." It is a simile. In her own reflection in this lake, beautiful youth is sinking, and terrible old age is rising.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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