"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath and 'A Hand-Mirror" by Walt Whitman are both poems
that talk about the aging of life, and how the mirror portrays this blatant
truthfulness that gives you a full picture of what aging entails in outright honesty.
However, even though the subject matter of the both poems is the same, both
have different approaches in portraying its view on the subject matter, in which
Sylvia Plath takes on a gentler tone while talking about aging, whereas Walt
Whitman has a harsher tone while touching on the subject of aging and the
negative effects that comes with it.
In 'Mirror' and 'A Hand-Mirror", we see how the mirror is personified as a
straightforward being, telling what it sees in plain honesty, where there is no
hiding or sugar-coating needed. "I am silver and exact. I have no
preconceptions./Whatever i see i swallow immediately". This quote from poem A
shows how the mirror reflects back whatever it sees in the same exact image, as
it has no preconceived notions on whatever appears on its reflection, it therefore
further emphasises on how the mirror gives a true and honest reflection on the
subject matter of aging. However, poem B shows how the mirror strips away the
youthful image of whatever it is given and goes deeper to reveal the true entirety
of the image as seen from "See this it sends back! (who is it? Is it you?)/Outside
fair costume". This shows that whatever the mirror portrays, it does not try to hide
or put it in a different light than what it already is. Instead it goes deeper and digs
out the harsh truth.
Both poems also tend to portray aging as some sort of ugly and decayed image.
"In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman/Rises toward her
day after day, like a terrible fish." This quote from poem A shows how aging
swallows up your youth and replaces it with old age and the disfigurement of the
youthful image it once has. I feel that this imagery of the disappearance of youth
and the replacement of old age is quite a scary and harrowing image to display
as there seems to be nothing good about aging in which you would look like a
"terrible fish", which is quite a scary depiction of how you will look like when you
are old. "Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous/Joints
rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination/Blood circulating dark and
poisonous streams". This quote from poem B gives a gruesome imagery that has
a slight hint of the theme of death and decay and shows how the process of
aging will bring about sickness and the decaying of our inner organs as all of
them will fail to function as we grow older.
There is a gentler tone when it comes to portraying the subject matter of aging in
poem A. "Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall" shows how the
persona in poem A does not want to look at her reflection that shows her aging
image and instead faces the other wall to “meditate”. Hence, this probably shows
that the image of her aging is too hard for her to take in, therefore she takes on a
softer approach to ignore it. “No brain, no heart left – no magnetism of sex/Such,
from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence/Such a result so soon – and
from such a beginning!” This quote from poem B shows that with aging brings
about the loss of everything, with a notion of the heart and soul degenerating.
Therefore, this takes on a harsher tone than in poem A, as it talks about the body
and how it takes away certain things from you.