"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath is a powerful and poignant poem that explores the relationship between the self and the external world. The poem employs several poetic devices to convey its themes and to enhance its overall impact on the reader.
One of the most prominent poetic devices used in "Mirror" is personification. The speaker in the poem personifies the mirror as a living, sentient being that has its own thoughts, feelings, and desires. The mirror is described as having "a mouth full of laughter," suggesting that it is capable of emotion, and as "reflect[ing] whatever it sees," suggesting that it has the ability to perceive and understand its surroundings. This personification creates a sense of intimacy between the speaker and the mirror, and helps the reader to understand the speaker's feelings of vulnerability and insecurity.
Another poetic device used in "Mirror" is imagery. The poem is filled with vivid and evocative descriptions of the mirror and its surroundings. The mirror is described as "silver and exact," suggesting its clarity and precision, and as "a lake" that is "padded with ice," suggesting its coldness and detachment. The speaker's reflection in the mirror is also described in great detail, with the "yellow eye" of the mirror "counting the wrinkles," and the "gray hair of the woman" it reflects "tugged by the wind." These images help to bring the poem to life and to create a sense of atmosphere and mood.
Metaphor is another poetic device that is used extensively in "Mirror." The mirror is metaphorically described as a "flower that blooms for a day," suggesting its fleeting nature and the impermanence of beauty. The speaker's reflection in the mirror is also described as a "terrible fish," suggesting the speaker's feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing. These metaphors add depth and complexity to the poem, and help the reader to understand the speaker's emotions and experiences in a more profound way.
Finally, "Mirror" makes use of repetition as a poetic device. The poem begins and ends with the line "I am silver and exact," emphasizing the centrality of the mirror to the poem and the speaker's feelings of self-examination. The repetition of this line also serves to create a sense of unity and coherence in the poem.
In conclusion, "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath is a masterful use of poetic devices to convey its themes and to enhance its overall impact on the reader. Through the use of personification, imagery, metaphor, and repetition, the poem explores the complex and often difficult relationship between the self and the external world, and touches upon universal themes of identity, beauty, and self-acceptance.
Sylvia Plath: Poems “Mirror” Summary and Analysis
Words that flow off of the tongue like honey bring readers to a place of tranquility. This is another similarity between the mirror, men and society. But before then, if I would have spent about five years studying, like Eliezer did by day the Talmud and by night the Kabbalah to find suddenly my religious teacher and some other Jews disappears, and is said to have been moved for their safety due to the war, but a few weeks later he comes back telling profound stories of Jewish babies being used as target practice, innocent people being forced to dig their own graves, then stand in front of that grave while someone either beheads or shoots them, and they fall into… Analysis Was It a Dream Explanation 1: We see the emotional tension and state that he is in after losing his dearly loved one. Each give suggestion at meaning. She does not have to worry about the unpredictability of life. These other devices are important to the poem and the scene it creates, but the mirror being a Self in 1958 vs.
Literary Analysis Of Mirror By Sylvia Plath
Towards the end of this first stanza, Plath starts to give us slightly more detail about how the mirror spends its days: with nothing to do all day and night but remain there, mounted on the wall, all it can do is look at the opposite wall which is pink, with speckles: suggesting the blemished or imperfect skin of a person? The reader knows exactly what they are now. The candle is false because it is light that has to be generated through the burning of tallow. Another poem by Sylvia Plath that uses an extended metaphor is mushrooms. Rhyme tends to secure the lines, anchor them in a familiar sound, but here the poet has chosen to end each line with a different word, virtually unrelated in sound or texture. The woman weeps, which pleases the mirror, perhaps because the tears replenish the water in the lake, or maybe the mirror is happy because it has done its job of faithful reflection and so feels rewarded. Lines 10-12 With god-like medium-shifting power, the mirror becomes a lake, metaphorical water. Mushrooms themselves are very insignificant organisms but they are very successful and can live and survive in all sorts of environments.
What is the poetic device in poem the mirror?
The glass jar distorts her image of the world as she feels trapped under the glass. When deployed, extended metaphors can powerfully convey emotions in an emblematic way. Where is metaphor poetic device used? An interesting and relatively new concept in poetry. What are examples of metaphors? Though the speaker is a mirror, the subjects are time and appearance. They are the unsolicited productions of the suicidal person, usually How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath has had an "exciting" life, if I can use this word.
