Sunday, January 14, 2018

What is an example of personification in "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath?

The entire poem "Mirror" is an extended use of personification. The poem is in first-person, with the speakers embodying the reflector concept in two different ways. The speaker in the first stanza is an actual mirror, and the one in the second stanza is a lake.
In stanza one, the mirror speaks of its (vertical) position hanging on the wall, silver and four-cornered. It mentions its heart but also says its reaction is "unmisted by love or dislike." It refers to reflection as "swallowing."
The second stanza's speaker is a lake, a different kind of mirror, in horizontal position as a "woman bends over" it. This lake reflects "faithfully," in contrast to light from candles, which are "liars." Rather than say that the woman is aging, the mirror says she has "drowned" a girl in it. The old woman she has become rises out of the lake like a fish.

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