Mirror by Sylvia Plath analysis
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 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.
Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is a complex and evocative poem that delves into themes of
identity, aging, and the nature of reflection. The poem is notable for its unusual speaker:
a mirror. This unconventional perspective allows Plath to explore the relationship
between self and image with a unique and unsettling clarity.
The Mirror as an Unbiased Observer
The poem opens with the mirror introducing itself as a “silver and exact” object, devoid
of emotion or judgment. It positions itself as a neutral observer, capable of reflecting
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 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.
Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is a complex and evocative poem that delves into themes of
identity, aging, and the nature of reflection. The poem is notable for its unusual speaker:
a mirror. This unconventional perspective allows Plath to explore the relationship
between self and image with a unique and unsettling clarity.
The Mirror as an Unbiased Observer
The poem opens with the mirror introducing itself as a “silver and exact” object, devoid
of emotion or judgment. It positions itself as a neutral observer, capable of reflecting
