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The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

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Sylvia Plath's poetry roots from her harsh life long battle with heart break, death, and depression. It is clear by her work, that life was a daily struggle for this poet. In the research of her poetry, i found one poem in particular that really interested me. My main focus was the poem "Mirror." The narrator of this poem is a wall mirror. At first glance, the mirror appears to be human, based off of its qualities and descriptions. The mirror has the ability to recognize things, such as the small detailed features of the room it is hung in, and the woman that so often looks into it. Such as line 7-8, which says, "It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long. I think it is part of my heart." The mirror observes the woman as she struggles with the reality of aging. Her skin being "pink with speckles," most likely a woman with a fair complexion and freckles, or "speckles." I found the themes of this poem to be along the lines of time and appearance. The woman is becoming aware that as she looks in the mirror from day to day, time is passing, and she is aging, which is hard for anyone, if not only women, to cope with. In the second stanza, the mirror becomes a lake. Now, whether or not this is a real lake, is questionable. Many critics have debated over the subject. Personally, I don't see it to be a literal lake. In the first and second line of the second stanza, Plath states, "Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is." I

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