Post by Admin on Oct 3, 2016 20:12:27 GMT
Theme
Ageing, the ageing process, individual facing a dilemma in her life
The speaker of this poem is an inanimate object – a mirror. The poet personifies the mirror and presents it as a living thing, a character with thoughts, ideas and emotions. The mirror possesses human traits such as faithfulness and jealousy. It also has a relationship of some kind with it’s owner, she relies on the mirror, it is “important” to her.
Stanza 1
Lines 1-5
The mirror’s function is to provide an “exact” and definite reflection of whatever stands before it. It is “exact”, with “no preconceptions”, “is unmisted by love or dislike” and “truthful”. In other words, the mirror is unbiased, impartial and a neutral observer.
There is also a sinister and threatening presence about the mirror. We see this when it describes itself swallowing everything that is put in front of it: “whatever I see I swallow immediately”. There is something threatening about this notion of the mirror devouring all it sees.
The mirrors depiction of itself as a kind of god adds to our sense of the mirror having a sinister presence, suggesting that it is the ruler or master of those who examine their reflection in it’s surface: “the eye of a little god, four-cornered”
Lines 6-9
The mirror informs us that it spends it’s time reflecting the wall opposite it. It meditates, suggesting examinating the wall with the intense focus of someone engaged in meditation. The mirror has spent so long “meditating” in this way that it now believes the pink wall is actually part of itself: “I have looked at it so long, I think it is a part of my heart”. The only thing that separates them is “faces and darkness”.
Stanza 2
Lines 10-11
An interesting metaphor is used to describe the woman’s attempts at self-discovery. The mirror is compared to “a lake” and the woman to someone on the lake shore, staring into the water’s murky depths: “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is”.
On one level, this comparison is obvious. Like a lake, the mirror has a reflective surface. However, this comparison also introduces an element of danger, where lakes can be treacherous and have hidden depths. It is possible to drown in such a lake, reminding us of the mirror’s claim to “swallow everything it sees”.
Lines 12-16
· The woman and the mirror seem to depend on each other. The mirror needs the woman to examine her reflection in it’s surface otherwise it will have nothing to look at but the pink wall opposite and darkness. The woman also needs the mirror: “I am important to her”. It is important on two levels to check her physical appearance but also the mirror is important in a spiritual or psychological sense. She seems to gaze into the mirror and is gripped by a fit of loneliness and despair: “she rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.”
· A sense of jealousy and resentment develops when the woman turns “to those liars, the candles or the moon”. The mirror feels hurt and betrayed but remains faithful to her, loyally reflecting her back.
· The woman is portrayed as a troubled soul, perhaps a lonely person. She seems to have lost her way in life and lost her sense of identity. Now she attempts to rediscover herself, to find out “what she really is”.
Lines 17-18
· The final two lines focus on the theme of old age and death. The mirror has recorded the slow and gradual ageing process of the woman. The traces of her younger beauty have become fainter and now “an old woman rises towards her day after day”.
· The mirror uses a striking metaphor to describe this process, saying that the woman has “drowned a young girl” in it’s depths. Once again the mirror is a lake and the woman is a person gazing into it’s depths.
· With each passing day the woman is becoming closer towards the identity of an old woman. Once again a powerful metaphor is used to depict this process. Old age is a fish swimming out of the lake’s depths and rising towards the woman. There is something unsettling and disturbing in this depiction of old age as “a terrible fish”, as some monstrous creature that all of us will someday have to face.
Language
· Use of “I” prominent = personification. (do not see woman’s view, mirror is speaking)
· “I” used in stanza 2 also, role of mirror developed = personified not as mirror but as a lake
· Important word in every line e.g. “exact”, “swallow”
· Use of opposing words e.g. “exact”/ “preconception”, “love”/ “dislike”, “cruel”/ “truthful”
· Strong words e.g. “unmisted” = transparent/precise, “god” = power, “little”/ “god” = opposites
· use of assertive language
· “liars” = angry, aggressive tone
· “faithfully”/ “liars” = opposing words
· “tears”, “agitation” = describe emotion
· “young girl” / “old woman” contrasting = careful phrasing
· “drowned”, “terrible”, = strong words
· certain phrases reflect transience of time e.g. “over and over”, “she comes and goes”, “day after day”
· mirrorcan not stop transition of time
· simile = fish
· metaphor = lake
Ageing, the ageing process, individual facing a dilemma in her life
The speaker of this poem is an inanimate object – a mirror. The poet personifies the mirror and presents it as a living thing, a character with thoughts, ideas and emotions. The mirror possesses human traits such as faithfulness and jealousy. It also has a relationship of some kind with it’s owner, she relies on the mirror, it is “important” to her.
Stanza 1
Lines 1-5
The mirror’s function is to provide an “exact” and definite reflection of whatever stands before it. It is “exact”, with “no preconceptions”, “is unmisted by love or dislike” and “truthful”. In other words, the mirror is unbiased, impartial and a neutral observer.
There is also a sinister and threatening presence about the mirror. We see this when it describes itself swallowing everything that is put in front of it: “whatever I see I swallow immediately”. There is something threatening about this notion of the mirror devouring all it sees.
The mirrors depiction of itself as a kind of god adds to our sense of the mirror having a sinister presence, suggesting that it is the ruler or master of those who examine their reflection in it’s surface: “the eye of a little god, four-cornered”
Lines 6-9
The mirror informs us that it spends it’s time reflecting the wall opposite it. It meditates, suggesting examinating the wall with the intense focus of someone engaged in meditation. The mirror has spent so long “meditating” in this way that it now believes the pink wall is actually part of itself: “I have looked at it so long, I think it is a part of my heart”. The only thing that separates them is “faces and darkness”.
Stanza 2
Lines 10-11
An interesting metaphor is used to describe the woman’s attempts at self-discovery. The mirror is compared to “a lake” and the woman to someone on the lake shore, staring into the water’s murky depths: “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is”.
On one level, this comparison is obvious. Like a lake, the mirror has a reflective surface. However, this comparison also introduces an element of danger, where lakes can be treacherous and have hidden depths. It is possible to drown in such a lake, reminding us of the mirror’s claim to “swallow everything it sees”.
Lines 12-16
· The woman and the mirror seem to depend on each other. The mirror needs the woman to examine her reflection in it’s surface otherwise it will have nothing to look at but the pink wall opposite and darkness. The woman also needs the mirror: “I am important to her”. It is important on two levels to check her physical appearance but also the mirror is important in a spiritual or psychological sense. She seems to gaze into the mirror and is gripped by a fit of loneliness and despair: “she rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.”
· A sense of jealousy and resentment develops when the woman turns “to those liars, the candles or the moon”. The mirror feels hurt and betrayed but remains faithful to her, loyally reflecting her back.
· The woman is portrayed as a troubled soul, perhaps a lonely person. She seems to have lost her way in life and lost her sense of identity. Now she attempts to rediscover herself, to find out “what she really is”.
Lines 17-18
· The final two lines focus on the theme of old age and death. The mirror has recorded the slow and gradual ageing process of the woman. The traces of her younger beauty have become fainter and now “an old woman rises towards her day after day”.
· The mirror uses a striking metaphor to describe this process, saying that the woman has “drowned a young girl” in it’s depths. Once again the mirror is a lake and the woman is a person gazing into it’s depths.
· With each passing day the woman is becoming closer towards the identity of an old woman. Once again a powerful metaphor is used to depict this process. Old age is a fish swimming out of the lake’s depths and rising towards the woman. There is something unsettling and disturbing in this depiction of old age as “a terrible fish”, as some monstrous creature that all of us will someday have to face.
Language
· Use of “I” prominent = personification. (do not see woman’s view, mirror is speaking)
· “I” used in stanza 2 also, role of mirror developed = personified not as mirror but as a lake
· Important word in every line e.g. “exact”, “swallow”
· Use of opposing words e.g. “exact”/ “preconception”, “love”/ “dislike”, “cruel”/ “truthful”
· Strong words e.g. “unmisted” = transparent/precise, “god” = power, “little”/ “god” = opposites
· use of assertive language
· “liars” = angry, aggressive tone
· “faithfully”/ “liars” = opposing words
· “tears”, “agitation” = describe emotion
· “young girl” / “old woman” contrasting = careful phrasing
· “drowned”, “terrible”, = strong words
· certain phrases reflect transience of time e.g. “over and over”, “she comes and goes”, “day after day”
· mirrorcan not stop transition of time
· simile = fish
· metaphor = lake