Sylvia Plath was born on
October 27, 1932 and
died on February 11th,
1963. She was an
American novelist, poet
and short story writer.
Background on Sylvia Plath
 Born 1932, died 1963
 Suffered from depression and low self-esteem
 Committed suicide three days after writing 'Mirror'
 Married to poet Ted Hughes – their divorce was said
to be the reason behind Plath's suicide
Tips for Reading
Using 'Mirror' by Sylvia Plath
 Re-read the poem and make notes on what it means
to you
 Remember to use quotations (including quotation
marks) throughout your essay.
The Mirror
 Ever caught yourself looking in the mirror a little too
long, just staring at your own reflection?
The Mirror
 In "Mirror," Sylvia Plath gives us the point of view of
the mirror –a mirror in the 1960s, a time when the
meaning of Plath's reflection, and women's
reflections in general, were rapidly changing.
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.
Mirror by Sylvia Plath
1.
1.
Who is the narrator of this poem?
Find a line or phrase that suggests the mirror is unaffected by
personal feelings.
1.
What does ‘meditating on the opposite wall’ mean?
1.
Why does Plath describe the wall as ‘part of [her] heart’?
1.
How does the mood alter in the second stanza?
1.
What do you think the woman is doing?
1.
What does the lake symbolize?
1.
Why does she call the candles and the moon ‘liars’?
1.
Write a short paragraph explaining why you like or dislike this
poem.
-Represents itself as “not cruel,
only truthful”, “faithful”,
honest and reliable.
-Too honest and too blunt for
the woman and “she turns to
those liars, the candles or the
moon” for a distorted image of
herself in order to not see her
aging in the soft focus.
 Throughout the poem the mirror is
shown as an arrogant object. The
metaphor of mirror being “the eye
of a little god” is sustained
throughout the poem signifying
the power it has.
 “I am important to her. She comes
and goes.” states the value of the
mirror for the woman and indicates
that the woman is addicted to the
mirror to the point where she’s
searching “for what she really is” in
the mirror, despite the fact that the
mirror is cruel and blunt. This
again gives power to the mirror.
STANZA TWO
“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.”
In stanza two the mirror becomes a perfectly
reflecting lake. A woman bends over the lake,
but no matter how deeply she searches she
sees only her actuality. Sylvia can not fall in
love with what she sees and she doesn’t like
herself at all.
In the poem, it tells us about a lady
who dislikes the way she looks. She
thinks of herself as being ugly.
Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” reflects
many different ideas and thoughts.
Her poem is dark, full of
unhappiness, and only views the
world from a pessimistic
perspective. Given Sylvia Plath’s
background it is understandable
that the poem is full of dark ideas
and wild nightmares. Sylvia Plath
writes many more poems like
“Mirror” Sylvia Plath uses imagery,
personification, metaphors, and
greatly shows a shift to express all of
her emotions she intended to be put
into the poem.
Introduction
-Give the title of the poem and the poet.
-Say what sort of poem it is (in this case – free-verse – it
doesn't rhyme – and laid out in two stanzas)
-Write a few short sentences about the subject of the
poem (truth, reflection, death, suicide...)
Imagery
-What are the pictures used in the poem? Why do you
think they are used and what effect do they have on
the reader?
-What metaphors, similes and personification are used?
-What senses are tapped into? Does this help you enjoy
or understand the poem?
Imagery
 From the beginning of the poem, where we find
out that the mirror is "unmisted" and "swallows"
everything, to the end of the poem, where a girl
is drowning and a fish is rising, this poem
revolves around water. Here, water is both a
reflecting surface and an actual lake.
 Water = Clear and Mysterious
Imagery
 Line 2: While this line doesn't explicitly address water,
it uses the word "swallow" as a metaphor for
reflecting. The word makes us think of water, which
can itself swallow things, taking them beneath its
surface.
Imagery
 Line 3: Again, a water-related term is used as a
metaphor. "Unmisted" stands in here for
"unchanged."
Imagery
 Lines 10-11: Here we find out that the mirror is a lake.
It's a cool image, shifting from the silver of a mirror to
the silver of clear water. Then we hear that a woman is
searching the reaches of the water for what she really
is; if you've ever spent some time peering into water,
you'll know that it can be mesmerizing like this. The
mythical Greek figure Narcissus even died looking
into his reflection in a pond.
Imagery
 Line 14: The tears are another form of water, and the
woman is physically interacting with the water of the
lake by stirring it up with her hands. She's taking her
frustration out on the water.
Imagery
 Lines 17-18: This drowning and rising up is, yet again,
a metaphor. With the young girl drowning, and the
old woman rising, it seems most likely that the water
is a metaphor for time, or aging. Also note that
because the old woman rises up "like" a terrible fish,
this part of the line is a simile.
Colors and Light
 Line 1: The color in this line gives us the major clue
that – ah ha! – the speaker is not a person, but a
personified mirror.
 Since this is the first line, we think of the color silver
throughout the poem whenever we think of the
mirror.
Colors and Light
 Lines 7-8: Silver mirror
 Pink, speckled wall—less exciting than the mirror
 But then in line 8, we find out that this speckled pink
wall is like part of the mirror's heart – and hearts
often make us think of the color red.
Colors and Light
 Line 9: Darkness separates the mirror from the pink
wall.
 The mirror also mentions that faces play a part in this
separation.
 What does this mirror feel about human faces if it
sees them on the same plane as darkness?
Colors and Lights
 Line 13: We hear that, when it comes to reflections,
candles and the moon are liars, that the light they
provide is false.
 The mirror's declaration personifies the candles and
the moons, giving them human qualities, like the
ability to lie.
Colors and Light
 Line 16: Again, in this line, we see faces and darkness.
But instead of the faces separating the mirror from
the pink wall, faces replace the darkness. We'd expect
the sky, in the morning, to replace the darkness, but
instead, the woman's face is the first thing reflected in
the lake.
Reflections
 Line 2: "Swallow" is a metaphor for reflecting. This
line is also an example of personification – mirrors
don't see or swallow anything – but Plath's poem
makes this character so believable that we have to
remind ourselves that mirrors don't have eyes or
mouths.
Reflections
 Line 6: Again, we see personification and metaphor
teaming up to mean reflection. The metaphor is that
the mirror is reflecting the opposite wall, not
"meditating on" (or thinking about) it. Mirrors don't
meditate, people do.
Reflections
 Lines 7-8: Mirrors don't see, and they don't look. --
another example of personification used to create a
metaphor for reflection.
 The mirror can feel that whatever it reflects is a part of
its heart, further personifying the mirror.
Reflections
 Line 11: Here we see the importance of reflections.
Now, the mirror is a lake, and a woman is searching its
waters to learn something about herself.
 Wider function of reflection in this poem. The
woman is treating her reflection in the water as if it
could reveal something about herself, and not just her
appearance.
Reflections
 Line 13: Finally used the word REFLECT.
 But not without some personification, of course.
The mirror is providing an accurate reflection, as if it
takes pride in what it does, or as if it has some loyalty
to this woman.
Reflections
 Lines 18-19: These two lines give reflections physical
power. Of course, this power is abstract – only a
figurative young girl and a figurative old woman are in
the waters of the lake.
 This line takes reflections from being about present
appearances and makes them about past and future
appearances, all through the metaphor of drowning
and rising in the waters of the lake.
Form & Structure
-Are there any interesting features in the poem from the
way it appears on the page – e.g. shape, length of
lines, number of stanza
Form & Structure
 Plath also uses repetitive phrases, like "over and over"
and "day after day." These phrases, and Plath's
attention to sound, help bring a little rhythm and
rhyme into this poem's free verse.
Over and over
Over and Over
Over and over
Over and over
Setting
 This poem has two distinct settings.
 In the first stanza, the setting is probably a bathroom, because the wall is
speckled pink, and there are a lot of faces and darkness in the room. But the
mirror could be anywhere – a bedroom, a hallway? It's left up to our
imagination.
 We do know that it's a four-cornered mirror, and not an oval one, so this
mirror is probably just practical, and not super fancy. Also, the detail that the
wall is pink might hint that there are women in the house, and that the mirror
is in an area they use. We imagine this mirror in a bathroom, with perfume
and hair gel right underneath it. Where do you picture the mirror hanging?
In the second stanza, the setting changes. We know that our speaker is now a
lake, but we don't know how big it is, or if it's in a field, by a forest, or even in
the middle of a suburb. We're guessing it's a small, clear lake, somewhere
mystical and moonlit, but close enough to a house that the woman who looks
at her reflection can come and go easily and often.
Rhyme & Rhythm
-Does the poem rhyme? If so, what pattern is used –
e.g. ABAB, ABCB
-Are there any strong beats in the poem – rhythm?
-If so, say why the poet might have used them.
Uses slant rhymes, or words that sound similar, but
don't quite rhyme. An example of this is the lines
ending in "darkness" and "fish" – these two words
sound similar, but the slant makes the rhyme
surprising and fresh.
Language
-Does the choice of words used by the poet help us
understand her feelings?
-Poets use certain words to trigger how we think about a
poem – which words do this?
-Think about the sound of the poem – which techniques
are used? e.g. Alliteration, Onomatopoeia
Themes
-Explore the themes and ideas more carefully.
-What is the poem really about? What message is Plath
trying to put across?
Conclusion
-How do you respond to the poem? Does it work for
you?
-Give your thoughts and feelings about the poem.