is Mirror poem for 2017-18 board exam for class 10
Answers
Summary
Mirror by Sylvia Plath is sad poem written in blank verse.
In the first line the narrator is a mirror. It says it is 'silver' and 'exact.'
It says it has no preconceptions unlike human beings whose perception is always
tainted by either love or hate. The mirror further says it is not 'cruel', but
'truthful.' It accepts whatever is put before it and reflects back true
picture. It is impartial like the eyes of a little god. Sylvia here might be
hinting at the estrangement that had started separating her and Ted Hughes, her
husband, who had been attracted towards someone else. So she might be comparing
his preconceptions with the objective and truthful nature of the mirror. It
confesses the pink wall with specks, opposite it has become part of its life(
another reference to her long association with Ted Hughes). It is not happy
whenever people or darkness separates them.
In the tenth line mirror says it is like a lake, in which the woman whose home
it is hanging in has lost her youth and beauty. Old age like a terrible fish is
surfacing from its depth. The woman is sad over the signs of old age that the
mirror is reflecting in her reflection in it.