Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Mirror is a free verse written by the American poet Sylvia Plath.

1. Sylvia Plath Mirror

2. CONTANTS Introduction The author Form Images Analysis Summary Conclusion

3. Introduction

4. Introduction Mirror is a free verse written by the American poet Sylvia Plath. The poem is written from the perspectives of two entities: a mirror and a lake, and the piece stands for the ideas of honesty, truth, and neutrality. Sylvia Plath chooses a simple everyday object, ‘a mirror’ in her poem and puts perspective to it by assuming its voice and expressing things one would barely think of. By using a mirror as the speaker of the poem, she explores the life of a woman as she grows old from an outward perspective. Mirror is a truly unusual and unique piece as it attempts to present truth about the self, unhindered even by personal conceptions .

5. The author

6. The author Sylvia Plath was a famous poet of the 1950’s and 60’s. She was unfortunately riddled with mental agony which is often reflected in her poetry. She was one of the pioneers in the genre of self-exploration and self-discovery. The poetess suffered from clinical depression and attempted suicide several times, succeeding in 1963 at the age of 30. It is unclear when this poem was written, but it is alleged that it was around 1961, at a time when the poet had undergone much emotional turmoil and had also produced a number of works including her only novel ‘The Bell Jar.’ The poem was published in 1971 as a part of the anthology ‘Crossing the Water.

7. The author Famous Works

8. Form

9. Form The poem "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath is written in free verse. This means that it does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, but rather that the rhythm of the lines is meant to project the emotions the poet intends to evoke in the reader. The poem is separated into two stanzas, each consisting of nine lines. The lines range from eight to fifteen syllables long, but they are not grouped into feet as would be the case in an accentual-syllabic poem and there is no regular system of line lengths as is syllabic poetry. The lines are usually end-stopped, meaning that the ends of lines coincide with syntactic units, usually ends of clauses or sentences, rather than syntactic units being split by line breaks .

10. Images

11. images The Mirror : Plath introduces the mirror but not as an inanimate object but as a being with its own thoughts and feelings. The poet personifies her mirror in order to stress the obsession with image, and inevitable loss of youth. Water:  It provides the same reflective qualities as the mirror, but also suggests depth, coldness, and describes a deeply unsettling and surreal scene of a young girl, symbolic of youth, drowning as an old woman. 

12. images Color, Light, and Darkness: In talking about mirrors, the sense of sight is pretty important. From silver to pink to moonlight, this poem uses colors and light to give the reader images as they read about a mirror . Reflections : In a poem about a mirror, we can expect a lot of reflections. Plath only uses the word "reflect" once, though. Instead of just repeating this word again and again, she uses personification and metaphor to get her point across. The emphasis on reflections in this poem shows the importance of appearance to the woman in the poem, and, perhaps, to women in general.

13. Analysis

14. analysis First Stanza 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.

15. analysis First Stanza In the opening line of the poem, the mirror proclaims “I am silver and exact  have no preconceptions" Throughout the entire poem, personification is the most prominent element, While the outside worked is critical , judgmental , and harsh, the mirror points out that it is always and "only truthful" It accepts both things and people for what they are without trying  to change them. The mirror is "the eye of a little god “  at the wall  for so Long opposite of  it has become “Part of my heart “ the only thing that separates the mirror from the wall are the ”Face and darkness, “ that pass by and “ flickers

16. analysis 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 . Second Stanza

17. analysis Next we see the lake as a mirror. A woman is shown looking at her reflection in the lake. Finding it disagreeable she turns away in sadness. The lake, being a kind of mirror, is truthful as well. It shows the woman exactly as she is, which is disagreeable to her. This blunt honesty of the lake-mirror and her own unpleasant state is the reason for her sadness. The woman is becoming old now, but she used to be young and beautiful once. She mourns the loss of her youth and beauty every time she sees her reflection in the lake. Thus, the idea of ‘truth causing agony’ is explored in the poem and is the central idea or theme . Second Stanza

18. Summary

19. SUMMARY The poem is told from the perspective of a mirror, who starts by describing itself physically as silver-colored and precise. The mirror insists it has no predetermined notions or assumptions about anything, and instead simply takes in whatever stands in front of it right away, exactly the way it is, unclouded by any feelings. The mirror isn't mean or harsh, but simply honest. It's like a small god's eye, only with four corners. For the most part, the mirror focuses on the pink, speckled wall that stands across from it. The mirror has been staring at this wall for so long that it thinks the wall is in fact an essential part of itself. At the same time, that wall goes in and out of focus as people and darkness pass in front of it—and into the mirror's line of sight—again and again .

20. SUMMARY The mirror becomes the reflective surface of a lake over which a woman leans, looking intently into the water's depths for some hint of who she is inside. Not finding it, she directs her attention to the candle she holds or the moon—sources of light that she thinks must be lying to her by not showing her who she really is. The mirror watches the woman's back as she walks away, and reflects it accurately. The woman thanks the mirror by crying and wringing her hands in distress. The mirror knows that it matters a lot to this woman, who comes back to look into it time and again. Every day starts with the woman's face taking the place of the darkness that the mirror reflected all night. The young girl she once was will never look back at her again, having been metaphorically drowned in the mirror. Instead, as the days go by she sees only the old woman.

21. Speakers

22. THANK YOU Designed by : Shatha Rashed