Analyse this poem. (7)
Extended metaphor — personification
The poem follows a seemingly omniscient narrator of a personified mirror
Motif of declaratives
The mirror creates a tone of objective judgement & certainty through a pattern of declarative simple sentences such as “I am silver and exact”. The power of it is also foreshadowed here — “Whatever I see I swallow immediately”
Imagery of darkness
The mirror appears bitter, calling candles and the moon “liars”
It also says that her face “replaces the darkness” every morning
Darkness is often a symbol of disillusion or derealisation in Plath’s poetry — this semantic field may therefore convey that the woman’s identity is shrouded by darkness due to its inextricable ties to her appearance — she therefore consoles herself within it rather than facing the stark brightness of the mirror
Lake metaphor
The mirror transfigures into a lake over which a woman bends — “searching my reaches for what she really is” — this may allude to the Greek myth of Narcissus, who is drowned by a nymph by contemplating his own appearance. However, Plath doesn’t pass the same judgement as this myth — instead she seems to lament the act
Simile & zoomorphism & future
The woman is placed in the active voice as the subject and the mirror as the object in the sentence “in me she has drowned a young girl” — this flips the previously established power dynamics which may be a lament on how women lose their youth to this obsession
This fearful obsession is replicated in the simile “an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish” — this unusual zoomorphic simile highlights the discomfort women feel regarding the ageing process
Which collection is "Mirror" from?
Ariel (1965)
Structural techniques in "Mirror"
Declarative grammatical mood
Two stanzas — both nine lines — mirror — reality from her and the mirror’s perspective
Which typical traits of Plath does "Mirror" use?
Motif of darkness
Eyes/vision as metaphors for power
Which literary context is relevant to "Mirror"?
Modernism — experimental structure and feminist message
Absurdism — questions the value of appearances
Which autobiographical context is relevant to "Mirror"?
She quotes Betty Friedan who suggests that after WWII ideas surrounding women returned to Victorian ideology — i.e., women should be innocent and submissive & are defined by their capacity to procreate. This may link to disillusionment with such qualities of femininity which Plath also explores in poems such as Morning Song
Steven Gould Axelrod
The mirror becomes “an agent of anxious narcissism”
Analyse this poem. (6)
Lack of punctuation
Beyond the repeated question marks in the poem, little to no punctuation is used to create breaks or pauses and sentences spill across the lines of the poem in haphazard lengths — this creates a fast pace and frenzied tone
Motif of interrogatives
This poem seems to pose the intrinsic question of “What am I?” with which it is first introduced — uncertainty is the emotion that pioneers Hughes’ Wodwo to create a narrative
Repetition & pastoral imagery
Frenzy is also seen in repeated phrases such as “what shape am I what shape am I”, “past these trees and past these trees” and “roots roots roots roots”, which seems to mirror an attempt to anchor one’s identity in the natural landscape in order to find relatability — roots may be a pun as it is often used with the pragmatic implication of one’s personal history
Hughes also uses multiple fronted conjunctions e.g. “and picking bits of bark…” and “but what shall I be called” which exemplifies acquires passion through curiosity
Allusion to the future
The poem concludes on an optimistic note “again very queer but I’ll go on looking” — this uses the present progressive tense and aspect to indicate the hunt for identity is limitless & depicts the spirit as profoundly curious — perhaps this is the nature of identity
However this questioning of how the Wodwo ties itself in with nature may be Hughes questioning his previous philosophies — he can no longer see himself plainly within nature
What collection is “Wodwo” from?
Wodwo (1967)
Structural techniques in “Wodwo”
Interrogative grammatical mood
Enjambment
Fronted conjunctions
Which typical traits of Hughes does “Wodwo” use?
Eye symbolism/ vision — “go on looking” = strive for power
Figurehead of nature is still used
Which literary context is relevant to “Wodwo”?
Modernism: stream-of-consciousness technique
Romanticism — subliminality of nature
Which autobiographical context is relevant to “Wodwo”?
Birthday Letters (1998)
The Wodwo collection was composed after 3 years since Plath’s suicide where he did not write anything. In it, he tends to ask the question “What am I?” — this poem explores his fatherhood
Hughes described the Wodwo collection as a descent into madness
Hughes on Shamanism & man’s reconciliation with nature
Gifford
Hughes' belief that poetry has become the secular healing substitute for organized religion
How are the poems similar and different?
They are very different in grammatical mood
Plath seems to have a more macrocosmic identity focus while Hughes moreso explores himself (extrospection vs introspection)
Omnsicient versus biased speakers
Plath is atypically more violent than Hughes in this poetic pair
Political versus philosophical didactic objectives