Sylvia Plath wrote "Mirror" in 1961, shortly after having given birth to her first child. Written from the point of view of a personified mirror, the poem explores Plath's own fears regarding aging and death. The mirror insists that it objectively reflects the truth—a truth that greets the woman who looks in the mirror each day as a "terrible" reminder of her own mortality. She searches the mirror for an image that reflects the way she sees herself and feels inside, yet finds only an increasingly older woman staring back. "Mirror" was first published in The New Yorker in 1963 and later appeared in Crossing the Water, which was published posthumously.

• Read the full text of “Mirror”

• “Mirror” Summary

• “Mirror” Themes

  • 

    Time, Aging, and Mortality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5
    • Lines 14-18
  • 

    Appearance and Identity

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5
    • Lines 10-11
    • Lines 12-14

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mirror”

  • Lines 1-3

    I am silver ...
    ... love or dislike.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-5

    I am not ...
    ... little god, four-cornered.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 6-9

    Most of the ...
    ... over and over.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 10-11

    Now I am ...
    ... she really is.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-14

    Then she turns ...
    ... agitation of hands.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 15-16

    I am important ...
    ... replaces the darkness.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-18

    In me she ...
    ... a terrible fish.

    

    

    

    

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• “Mirror” Symbols

  • 

    The Mirror

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-5
    • Lines 10-11
    • Lines 13-18

• “Mirror” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-18

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “silver,” “exact,” “preconceptions”
    • Line 2: “Whatever,” “see,” “swallow”
    • Line 3: “Just,” “unmisted,” “love,” “dislike”
    • Line 4: “cruel, only truthful”
    • Line 5: “four-cornered”
    • Line 6: “time,” “meditate,” “opposite”
    • Line 7: “pink,” “speckles,” “looked,” “long”
    • Line 8: “think,” “part,” “heart,” “flickers”
    • Line 9: “Faces,” “darkness,” “separate,” “us”
    • Line 11: “Searching,” “reaches for,” “really”
    • Line 12: “turns,” “liars,” “candles,” “moon”
    • Line 13: “back,” “reflect,” “faithfully”
    • Line 14: “rewards,” “tears”
    • Line 16: “face,” “replaces,” “darkness”
    • Line 18: “Rises toward her,” “after,” “terrible”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “exact,” “have,” “preconceptions”
    • Line 2: “see,” “immediately”
    • Line 3: “is,” “unmisted,” “dislike”
    • Line 4: “cruel,” “truthful”
    • Line 8: “part,” “heart,” “it flickers”
    • Line 9: “Faces,” “separate”
    • Line 11: “reaches,” “really”
    • Line 13: “see,” “faithfully”
    • Line 16: “face,” “replaces”

  • Diacope

    

    

    

    

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    Where diacope appears in the poem:

    • Line 9: “over and over”
    • Line 18: “day after day”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “Whatever I see I swallow immediately”
    • Line 3: “unmisted by love or dislike”
    • Line 5: “The eye of a little god”
    • Lines 7-8: “I have looked at it so long / I think it is part of my heart”
    • Lines 10-11: “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, / Searching my reaches for what she really is”
    • Lines 17-18: “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 17-18: “and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “I am silver and exact.”
    • Line 5: “The eye of a little god, four-cornered.”
    • Line 7: “It is pink, with speckles.”
    • Lines 8-9: “But it flickers. / Faces and darkness separate us over and over.”
    • Line 16: “Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 10-11: “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, / Searching my reaches for what she really is.”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “immediately / Just”
    • Lines 7-8: “long / I ”
    • Lines 17-18: “woman / Rises”

• “Mirror” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Preconceptions
  • Unmisted
  • Meditate
  • Speckles
  • Agitation
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “I have no preconceptions”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mirror”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Mirror” Speaker

• “Mirror” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Mirror”

• More “Mirror” Resources

  • External Resources

    • A Reading of the Poem — Hear the poem read aloud.

    • An Interview with Plath — An interview with the poet by Peter Orr for the BBC, in which she talks about her influences and process.

    • Mirrors and Women — A brief essay by Neve Akridge about the significance of mirrors in women's literature

    • The Poet's Voice — Check out this recording of Plath reading a selection of her earlier poems, most of which were featured in The Colossus, her only book published during her lifetime.

    • Biography and Poems — An overview of Sylvia Plath's life and work, along with a number of her poems to explore.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Sylvia Plath

    • Ariel

    • Cut

    • Daddy

    • Edge

    • Fever 103°

    • Kindness

    • Lady Lazarus

    • Mad Girl's Love Song

    • Metaphors

    • Morning Song

    • Nick and the Candlestick

    • Poppies in July

    • Poppies in October

    • Sheep in Fog

    • Sow

    • The Applicant

    • The Arrival of the Bee Box

    • The Moon and the Yew Tree

    • The Munich Mannequins

    • The Night Dances

    • Tulips

    • Words

    • You're

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