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.
Silvia Plath
-Beautiful metaphor of the mirror being the truth, and our reflections in the water, the way we see ourselves by moonlight is a false reflection, or false hopes and visions of ourself--if we let ourselves drown in those false reflections we can waste our life away. Interesting anyway huh? Kinda cool.
I am not a huge poetry person, but I am finding it more and more fascinating as I am teaching again for the second time. I think I am one of those kinds of people that the more I know the poetic devices and effects the poet tries to use, I appreciate it more than if I just try to read it, and don't understand how the poetic devices help create the mood/theme of the poem. I guess what I am trying to say is I am appreciating the craft of poetry more and more, vs. just reading it and not understanding as I have a tendency to do. But, what I really wanted to share is this really cool, and yes, mildly disturbing poem one of my students found, by Silvia Plath. Enjoy!
5 comments:
Since I am probably the only one who is going to comment on this post :) I am just going to say, I think that the poem makes the mirror a friendlier character than the lake. Food for thought.
Cool poem. I feel like I'm kind of cheating my students. We aren't really doing a lenghty poetry unit, but I am trying to intermingle lots of poetry throughout the year.
Poetry is not my favorite, but it is a required huge unit for the kids here, some love it, some sure don't! :)
But I thought the lake metaphor applied to the mirror? As in, the mirror became the lake and that the reflection of the young woman was disappeared in the mirror whilst the image of the aging/older woman became more apparent and unwelcome? Or am I over-thinking it?
I don't know! I am not a good poem person! I think def. the older woman's image was/is becoming more unwelcome and apparent. My student was just talking about the moon and false candles being what make the woman in the lake look more pretty or what not than she is, the and hmmmm. I don't know! My student was just showing it to me and talking about how the woman in the poem searches, and needs the mirror/lake so much ect., anyway! Cool poem.
Post a Comment