Contents: Poem Text Poem Summary Themes Style Critical Overview Criticism Sources For Further Study |
Sylvia Plath 1963
First appearing in the New Yorker in 1963 and then the posthumously published collection Crossing the Water: Transitional Poems (1971), Plath’s poem “Mirror” exhibits many of the thematic and stylistic qualities which made her one of the best known poets of her generation. “Mirror” was written in 1961, just two years before Plath’s suicide — a two-year period which, ironically, was among the most productive of her literary career. Her poems from this time, many of which are collected in her most widely acclaimed book Ariel, are often dark, at times full of despair and anger at life, and many contain violent images and unsettling metaphors.
“Mirror” is written from a mirror’s perspective, and the poem presents, at first, what seems to be a light-hearted observation on the unfailing honesty and accuracy of its reflection. In its second stanza, however, the tone of the poem darkens, and the theme of honesty undergoes a dramatic change, as a woman finds her reflection in the mirror to be a unwanted reminder of her age and her mortality — and ultimately, a source of terror.
