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The Full Text of “Sow”
The Full Text of “Sow”
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“Sow” Introduction
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“Sow” Summary
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“Sow” Themes
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The Power of Animals and Nature
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-45
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Vision, Imagination, and Myth
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-10
- Lines 23-45
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Female Power, Subjugation, and Revolt
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-6
- Lines 11-45
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sow”
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Lines 1-6
God knows how ...
... and pig show. -
Lines 7-10
But one dusk ...
... gape at it: -
Lines 11-16
This was no ...
... a parsley halo; -
Lines 17-23
Nor even one ...
... the pink teats. -
Lines 23-29
No. This vast ...
... The great grandam!— -
Lines 29-33
our marvel blazoned ...
... that sow's heat. -
Lines 34-39
But our farmer ...
... light to shape -
Lines 40-45
A monument ...
... every earthquaking continent.
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“Sow” Symbols
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The Sow
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-45
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“Sow” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 9: “Maze of barns”
- Line 16: “In a parsley halo;”
- Line 19: “on her snout-cruise”
- Line 20: “Bloat tun of milk”
- Line 21: “hedged by a litter”
- Line 29: “our marvel blazoned a knight,”
- Line 37: “letting legend like dried mud drop,”
- Lines 39-45: “to shape / A monument / Prodigious in gluttonies as that hog whose want / Made lean Lent / Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint, / Proceeded to swill / The seven troughed seas and every earthquaking continent.”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “how”
- Line 2: “sow”
- Line 4: “same way”
- Line 5: “sow,” “impounded”
- Line 6: “ribbon,” “pig”
- Line 7: “one dusk,” “questions commended”
- Line 13: “thrift children,” “pig”
- Line 17: “sows”
- Line 18: “blowzy”
- Line 21: “litter,” “ninnies”
- Line 22: “Shrilling”
- Line 23: “swig,” “pink,” “vast”
- Line 24: “Brobdingnag”
- Line 25: “sow lounged,” “belly-bedded,” “that black”
- Line 26: “Fat”
- Line 32: “grisly-bristled”
- Line 33: “fabulous,” “straddle”
- Line 34: “whistled”
- Line 35: “fist,” “thwacked,” “barrel”
- Line 36: “castled”
- Line 37: “letting legend,” “like dried,” “mud”
- Line 38: “grunt”
- Line 39: “grunt,” “up”
- Line 41: “hog,” “want”
- Line 43: “slops”
- Line 44: “Proceeded”
- Line 45: “seas”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “knows,” “neighbor”
- Line 3: “his,” “he,” “hid”
- Line 4: “same”
- Line 5: “sow,” “public,” “stare”
- Line 6: “Prize,” “pig”
- Line 7: “questions,” “commended”
- Line 8: “lantern-lit”
- Line 9: “lintel,” “sunk sty”
- Line 11: “suckling”
- Line 12: “slot”
- Line 18: “Mire-smirched”
- Line 19: “Maunching”
- Line 20: “milk”
- Line 21: “move,” “feat-foot”
- Line 22: “hulk”
- Line 23: “halt”
- Line 24: “Brobdingnag bulk”
- Line 25: “belly-bedded,” “black”
- Line 27: “hoghood”
- Line 28: “wholly”
- Line 29: “great grandam”
- Line 32: “By,” “bristled”
- Line 33: “Boar,” “straddle,” “sow's”
- Line 36: “copse-castled”
- Line 37: “letting legend,” “dried,” “drop”
- Line 41: “hog whose”
- Line 42: “lean Lent”
- Line 43: “kitchen,” “slops,” “stomaching,” “constraint”
- Line 44: “swill”
- Line 45: “seven,” “seas”
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Hyperbole
Where hyperbole appears in the poem:- Lines 23-25: “This vast / Brobdingnag bulk / Of a sow”
- Line 35: “thwacked the barrel nape,”
- Lines 39-45: “to shape / A monument / Prodigious in gluttonies as that hog whose want / Made lean Lent / Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint, / Proceeded to swill / The seven troughed seas and every earthquaking continent.”
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Lines 8-9: “Through his lantern-lit / Maze of barns”
- Lines 23-24: “This vast / Brobdingnag bulk”
- Lines 29-33: “our marvel blazoned a knight, / Helmed, in cuirass, / Unhorsed and shredded in the grove of combat / By a grisly-bristled / Boar, fabulous enough to straddle that sow's heat.”
- Lines 41-45: “that hog whose want / Made lean Lent / Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint, / Proceeded to swill / The seven troughed seas and every earthquaking continent.”
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“Sow” 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.
- Sow
- Impounded
- Commended
- Lintel
- Sty
- Rose-and-larkspurred
- Suckling
- Thrift
- Dolt
- Heckling
- Glorified
- Prime flesh
- Parsley halo
- Mire-smirched
- Blowzy
- Maunching
- Thistle and knotweed
- Snout-cruise
- Tun
- Hedged
- Litter
- Feat-foot ninnies
- Shrilling
- Teats
- Brobdingnag
- Belly-bedded
- Fat-rutted
- Dream-filmed
- Grandam
- Blazoned
- Helmed
- Cuirass
- Unhorsed
- Grove of combat
- Grisly-bristled
- Heat
- Jocular
- Barrel nape
- Green-copse-castled
- Hove
- Legend
- Prodigious
- Gluttonies
- That hog
- Lean Lent
- Slops
- Constraint
- Swill
- Troughed
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “His great sow:”; Line 33: “fabulous enough to straddle that sow's heat.”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sow”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Sow” Speaker
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“Sow” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Sow”
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More “Sow” Resources
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External Resources
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Confessional Poetry — Read about the literary movement with which Plath's work became associated.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to Sylvia Plath reading "Sow."
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The Poet's Life — Read a short biography of Plath at the Poetry Foundation.
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Plath on Becoming a Writer — Listen to a 1962 interview with Plath.
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Hughes's Pig Poem — Read Ted Hughes's "View of a Pig," written after the same barnyard visit that inspired Plath's "Sow."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Sylvia Plath
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