Famous Sad Poem

Sylvia Plath was an American author and poet who lived from 1932-1963. She was a driven person, and she graduated summa cum laude from Smith College in 1955. Despite her success, Plath struggled with depression, and committed suicide in 1963. This poem shows the struggle a woman has with her identity as she grows older and begins to lose her youthfulness. It also uses personification by giving human characteristics to the mirror.

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A mirror never lies. It shows what is what exactly. Just as Plath writes: "I am silver and exact". The truth of our mortality is what we keep on negating and the speaker too finds it hard to...

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Famous Poem

Mirror

Sylvia Plath By more Sylvia Plath

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.

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Has this poem touched you? Share your story!
  • Virginia N. Pritts by Virginia N. Pritts
  • 3 years ago

Self-reflections of my memories, although bitter, I am thankful I'm still here to reflect on past woes. Woes that were filled with deep suffering that were seen in my everyday life. At a glance if only people cared enough to notice something was amiss. I felt I was the object to be used, the mirror, that reflected my own hurt and the hate of the abusers upon me. And as that reflector showed, a dirty reflection yet reflected the truth. All too often people become overwhelmed to the point of no return. Although the poem is a well-written work of art, it may be viewed as an unanswered cry for help regarding the author. The sorrowful
expression of the struggle and loss makes this poem a Classic. Let us become more vigilant to one another; it's the least we can do.

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  • Nidhi Rana by Nidhi Rana
  • 3 years ago

A mirror never lies. It shows what is what exactly. Just as Plath writes: "I am silver and exact". The truth of our mortality is what we keep on negating and the speaker too finds it hard to absorb the fact that she is growing older, as we read, "She rewards me with tears." So it is this consciousness of her age that makes her sad. But at the same time, it is also about a woman's identity that Plath is constantly thinking about. She writes of herself as the lake as well the woman who bends over it to search for "what she really is".
The poem is much deeper than what it appears on the face of it. It is beautiful!

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  • Sylvia by Sylvia
  • 1 year ago

I agree with your analysis of this piece. I plan to study it further to gain the insight that seems to be parallel with my current state.

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