Poem Outline - Chapter 2 - "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath

In "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, the personification of reflective surfaces gives an original look at  places and people through the perspective of mirrors that see the world around them and how they affect people overtime.

The use of a mirror as the narrator of the poem allows for a non-judgmental viewpoint.

• "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions" (1).

A mirrors surface is silver and reflective, showing whatever is put in front of it exactly as it is. A mirror cannot change these things that it sees, it just shows them as they are. Mirrors cannot judge, they cannot be prejudiced towards what it sees.

• "Whatever I see I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. / I am not cruel, only truthful" (2-4).  

Mirrors "swallow" the images around them to reflect their surroundings. They do so because that's what they were made to do, so they cannot choose what to see based on "love or dislike". They cannot be mean because of this, and they can only reflect what is actually there, the truth.

The diction in the poem is dark and morbid.

• "She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands" (14).

The line is telling of how, when the woman stares into the lake, she starts to cry and bats away the image on the water's surface.  The juxtaposition of "rewards" and "tears" is unusual and unsettling, for rewards are supposed to be happy and given to someone when they have done well. The woman is unhappy with what she sees, but the lake sees her "tears" and "agitation of hands" as a reward to the lake for showing her the truth.

• "In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish" (17-18).

The lake has seen this woman age over time, for she was once a "young girl". Over time, the girl has grown into a woman and her young self is "drowned", for she will never be that young again. "Day after day" sounds monotonous due to it's alliteration and emphasizes the fact that the woman comes by each day to see her reflection, yet never gets desired results. To the woman, her reflection is like that of a "terrible fish", for as she cranes her head over the water, the reflection looks as if it is not bowing towards the water, but rising up to stare back at her.

The syntax and diction of the poem make it seem slow and calming, yet also deep and dark.

• There are many periods in the poem, more than there are commas. Many of the lines stop at the ends.

The periods seem to leave the ends of sentences hanging, even though they are supposed to stop them. They are like cliffhangers at the ends of sentences, because the sentence that came before them seem to need more support to make total sense.

• The lines are long and, even with stops, draw themselves out with their words.

"Over and over" in line 9 and "day after day" in line 18 drag out the poem. The use of "each morning" makes the poem feel like it takes place over many days.