Mirror

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The poem “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath is a narrative poem that depicts a peculiar scene of a woman searching for the truth/reality about herself and relies this to an object called mirror. The poem is written in free-verse, open structure, with no constant number of syllables nor line breaks. The speaker of the poem which is a mirror, illustrates an anguished woman hanging on the “truth” within reflection. It informs the audience that they will eventually know their truths although it may be extremely hurtful just like the woman portrayed in the poem. The author employs numerous literary devices such as diction, visual imagery, and personification to set the scene of a woman struggling with her self-image and getting to know her true self.

Sylvia Plath incorporates various diction throughout the poem which can be noticed certainly due to the use of simple sentences and phrases that are comprehensible to the average readers. Packed with implicit and subtext notions, the device helps in portraying the different emotions and feelings of the mirror as well as the ageing woman toward the present appearance. In the poem, diction indicates a calm and peaceful tone which becomes evocative and sentimental to the subject (woman) as well as the audience. However, a shift in the middle of the poem alters the mood and even the theme in which the tone is largely agitated, pessimistic, and anxious. For example, the phrase “pink with speckles” illustrates innocence and feminism in which a young girl might have as her wall in her room. However as the poem progresses, the poet utilizes the word “darkness” to imply the emotion of the woman driving the time that is losing her way as a youth. The woman is agitated becoming an adult; she is horrified t...

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...sant in which she visits day after day. The woman is not only attempting to see the reflection but the deeper part of her, who she really is. Later on, the woman swoons into the lake that reflected her ugliness and sees herself as a “terrible fish” in that lake.

In conclusion, the poem deals with different emotions such as dramatic ageing, necessity and craving for beauty, and inescapable pains one must go through when losing his/her youth. The poem enhanced the three literary devices: personification, visual imagery, and diction to depict the woman’s transformation and the feelings she has after all this. In addition, the emotive and philosophical qualities of the poem makes the readers confront the truth of ageing and how hard it can take on each individual. The woman endures pain watching the past drown while waiting for the bleak and desolate future to arrive.

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