Thursday, November 8, 2007

Mirror

Hey. It's Amal and I have another poem to share with you. I thought it was interesting, so give it a chance!

Mirror by Sylvia Plath
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 the 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.

4 comments:

ENG3U Student said...

I love Sylvia Plath's poems. Mirror, especially, is a really bitter-sweet poem. The imagery in this poem is brilliant.

Is it the case that the mirror, while being unjudgemental, is really judging, because it does call the moon and the candle liars? Just a thought.

-Angelina

ENG3U Student said...

Amal,

Wow, that simile at the end totally caught me off guard. Did this happen with you too? Even with the earlier line "Now I am a lake" I still didn't see "like a terrible fish" coming. Plath can be really difficult sometimes but I think this piece is fairly transparent. I like it.

Regards,
Mr. G

ENG3U Student said...

Hey, Angelina! I didn't know you were a fan of Plath. Have you ever read "Daddy"?

Hmm... I think the candle and the moon are referred to as liars because they can shows someone in a different light and hide their physical flaws. I found the indifference of the mirror as it calmly observes really unsettling.

Mr. G, I definitely wasn't expecting that part either. Why do you think she transitioned to "Now I am a lake"? I thought it was to show that she can't really escape her reflection, even if the mirror isn't near her.

ENG3U Student said...

Hey Angelina this is Melanie i totally agree with you and Mr.G like i was so shocked with the way that the mirror went from being proud and using the beautiful lake and then all of a sudden to a nasty fish...my idea which may be wrong was that she was a beautiful lake so long as the girl who would look at the mirror was young but then the second last line says "and in me an old woman". This shows the transmition of the girls age and i guess the mirror is saying she's like a fish now because fish usually represent grossness or ugliness...so the mirror now feels guilty for jumping back at the girl each day to show her how she has aged....you know i was thinking...this would be amazing as a concrete poetry just a thought spanxx luv u Melanie