Mirror by Sylvia Plath Gutierrez, Bryana Iturribarria, Naomi Muñoz, Yulissa

BIO Sylvia Plath was a poet and a novelist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1932. She was raised as a Unitarian Christian but had mixed emotions toward religion after her father’s death in 1940. She attended Smith and Cambridge College. In 1960 she published her first book The Colossus. Her husband, Ted Hughes, left her for another woman and she was left with her two children. On February 11, 1963 she committed suicide due to her depression. Plath became the first person to win a posthumous (awarded after death) Pulitzer Prize in 1982 Plath’s poems analyzed her own mental suffering, her failed marriage, conflicts with her parents, and her own vision of herself.

Sylvia Plath is buried in Yorkshire, England.

Vocab Reaches: a continuous extent of land or water. Preconception: a preconceived idea or prejudice. Unmisted: able to see clearly. Agitation: stirring/ disturbing something, especially a liquid. Reaches: a continuous extent of land or water.

Mirror 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 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 a 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.

Analysis “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath is a free verse because there is no rhyme scheme or meter, and it consists of 18 lines. The poem is written in first person. She uses I, me, us, my continuously throughout the poem. The human like qualities (personification) of the mirror tells us that the speaker of the poem is the mirror. The theme is about time and aging, and how the woman looking at herself via mirror is searching for herself. “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day, like a terrible fish.” Plath uses an enjambment in line 4 by using a dash. (—)

Diction The diction in Plath’s poem is straightforward, and neutrall. Words such as “silver and exact,” “swallow immediately,” “truthful,” and lines 12, 13, and 18 gives a straightforward tone to the poem. The tone can also be neutral, for example line 1 “I have no preconceptions,” and the word “meditate” shows that the mirror does not hate or love the woman looking at her reflections; it just tells/shows her the truth. Words such as god, meditate, candles, faithfully, and fish, have the impression of religion.

Literary Devices & Figurative Language Personification a figure of speech in which objects & animals have human qualities. ex: “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.” The wall is being personified by being able to meditate. Simile a direct comparison of two unlike objects, using like or as. ex: “… an old woman Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” Like is the keyword it’s a simile, and the woman is being compared to a fish. Metaphor a figure of speech which makes direct comparison of two unlike objects by identification/substitution. ex: “I am not cruel only truthful — The eye of a little god, four-cornered.” Imagery the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description. ex: “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.”

In stanza one, the Mirror describes itself and how it is truthful at reflecting the image it is “swallowing” disregarding the hate or love it feels toward the person looking at their reflection. The mirror compares itself to a nonspecific god, saying like god it sees everything. In lines 6-9 the wall opposite to the mirror is pink, but it flickers due to the darkness and faces that separate them. Interpretation

In the second stanza the Mirror turns into a lake where a woman looks at herself searching for who she is. But she doesn’t like what she sees so she turns to the candles and moon because she doesn’t like what the lake is reflecting. The moon and candles are called liars because they lack enough light for the woman to see herself clearly. In line 14 the woman stirs the water as she cries to destroy her reflection. The last four lines the mirror/lake proceeds to explain how the lake is important to her because she always comes back, and that the woman's face replaces the darkness (similar to line 9), and due to her going back all the time, her young self has disappeared and her older, unattractive, self is being seen day by day. We think that “like a terrible fish.” is a metaphor to describe how ugly she is becoming.