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 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.
I noticed as I read on the comments were a wee bit upset with the professor. Although I must agree with him. Without reading “The Bell Jar” or her Bio you are going to take a poem and reflect it toward your life’s emotions and strife or you will try to analyze with what you do know about her. In “The Bell Jar” there is a entire explanation about the mirror. She had attempted her first suicide with sleeping pills in the crawl space of her home. She took too many which saved her life. (she vomited them up). She was there for 3 days before she was found. In the hospital she talked a nurse into giving her a mirror. The nurse refused at first then finally let her have it. At the sight of herself swollen, bruised and bald she dropped the mirror and broke it. She ended up in a mental institution undergoing shock therapy. Which would explain the bottom portion of the poem. I have noticed in my independent study of Plath she basis most of her writings on her own life and strife. Cueing in actual events. Once you’ve read the “Bell Jar” which I recommend and more vivid bios her works make so much more sense in aspect to her herself. Hope this cleared up some of the fogginess. After reading this comment, reread the poem. See what you think.
I believe that the “Mirror” is about Ted Hughes representing the mirror and Sylvia Plath herself as the woman. He’s not “cruel, only truthful–” and powerful over her “the eye of a little god, four-cornered”. He does not wish to become closer to her, merely letting darkness and people come between them. The lake has no big thing, only that it is equivalent, for it reflects. Sylvia is the woman, giving up her past and her future for him. Oh, how I luv symbolism! (Yes, I know I am that UK nerd…)
lance bass – just because you’re a professor don’t think you know everything! i believe it’s about her experience in the psychiatric hospital. the woman she refers to is her mother – “she rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. i am important to her, she comes and goes” read the bell jar and you will see 🙂
If you think about it, at one point or another, haven’t we felt this way; just like the mirror or the woman. You know that Sylvia is not talking about a mirror, but maybe about herself of as someone else said, her husband. But why take this poem and analyze it? Why not look at it and say, ‘wow, that really can relate to me’. Isn’t that what poems are for? Haven’t you ever felt that way?
I think this poem is great I have never read a poem that touched me. I think it is great that we all read the same thoughts of someone who is passed so long and interpret it so differently…i wonder what she intended us to think. I just know it meant a lot to me and I hope she is happy where she is now:)
I believe she was feeling the effects all women feel going from gorgious twenties two thirties loosing the attention of the room when entering it. And dealing with that.
Being N PROFESSOR DOES’NT MEAN YOU CAN SEE INTO SOMEONES SOUL ON WHICH SHE POURED ON TO HER PAGES.
This poem is about whatever reaction it had on the reader. For your reports, talk about your personal reaction along with some facts, because poetry isn’t just about whatever the professor thinks (lance bass).
This poem is off the hizzle shizzle no fo rizzle man………. NAw dawg just playin u know that dissle and way This poem has great comments thanks for helping me with my report
I liked this poem very much because I never thought in the view of a mirror.
This poem is just simply great and I have a great respect towards the poet who had written this poem.
I liked this poem very much because I never thought in the view of a mirror.
This poem is just simply great and I have a great respect towards the poet who had written this poem.
This poem is merely about a mirror, no more. i know, i’m a professor.
The poem is about Sylvia’s life adn death.
Reading this poem makes you take step back on how women feel about their slowly aging features as they grow older. Why does the feeling spread throughout each elder? I guess it’s just expected.
Don’t read too much into the poem. Over-analyzing it takes away from it’s initial sting; a beautiful sting. Life is already so complex on its own, let us not ruin the simplicity of echoing verse.
This poem is a good poem worth reading again and again,but it’s not so complex as many people say,mirror represents her father, herself ,even her husband.Some people even mention the hints of her death,it’s impossible,the poem is written in 1961 and she died in early 1963,her husband betrayed her in 1962. So I think the theme of this poem is just to show how important the appearance is to the women,mirror,lake(may be a basin of water for her to wash her face in the morning)don’t tell lie,they have the same function of telling truths,they are all personified to indicate women’s fear and depression of aging,to reflect women’s embarrassment in a world, where youth and beauty is valued.
I believe that in this poem the mirror is actually Sylvia’s husband. She compares the mirror to ‘the eye of a little god’ meaning that he believes that he is better than her. The poem also talks about the mirror never getting to close (mediate on the opposite wall). It seems as though since she has been with him so long that they are in love, but it is not the case. Faces and darkness seperate them (affairs and buisness). The lake in the second verse is her escape, it could be drugs, other men or alcohol. She goes everyday thinking that it will help her but it ends up making her more and more depressed. The terrible fish is her rotting marriage and her failed attempts to hide her misery.
I found this a very hard poem to grasp, i am in yr 11 and studying this and found it very confusing because it has so many menaings, however my own opinion it that it shows the mirror being truthful and what it is emnat to but then when the woman [sylvia i believe] looks into she can no longer hide the truth that she is ageing, however she keeps going to this mirror or the lake that is in representation of a mirror in hope that she might have changed. This poem is very dark and very depressing and i believe is what is drawn upon from her own depression on life snd the sadness she went through wihch finally led to her suicide sadly. What i love about this poem though is how she uses the moon and the candles which i believe represent love, and how she uses them to show all the lies she has had in love before and she goes to the mirror in search of truth. Overall this poem was very intriging and eventually it was a good read but i dread it being on my final test paper!!!!
the poem personifies the mirror beautifully, at first describing its honest depiction of what truly is. it also mentions that when the woman is not looking at it it is dark. The poet compares its crystal clearness with a clear lake water disturbed only at times with the woman searching her face. The woman is distraught at signs of old age. To the mirror, she is a fish disturbing the calm lake surface.
I disagree I believe that she is looking into the mirror seeing all her truths and knows that the mirror will not lie to her back. It symbolizes her failures in life which Sylvia thought she had many. However, for the second part of the poem i took that the women now looking in the mirror was about all women and how they were not free to be accepted in the world and were pulled down by the male restraints in society. And also at the very end of the poem I felt as though she was talking about the fish coming out of the water being that of her father, because a fish is hidden under the water, but always has the ability to reappear. And i don’t believe that Sylvia is implying that she is scared of the darkness of death, hence, she commited suicide.