In April1960, Frieda Rebecca (their first child) was born. Later that year Plath became pregnant again and in February she had a miscarriage. She also had an appendectomy, which left her stitched & hospitalized for a number of weeks. On 17 January 1962 Plath Nicholas Farrar (their second child) was born. Late in September the married couple decided for a legal separation. In October Plath wrote over 25 poems and they were the best. In November she and her children moved to London where they had no telephone and the heat was no enough for the cold. Plath spent most of her time in London very lonely. The winter from 1962 to 1963 was recorded as one of the coldest in London ever. Sewer pipes froze and there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground. She and her children got sick leading her to a depression. On 11 February 1963, Plath took her own life. She placed her head in a gas oven and died of gas intoxication.
Why Silvia wrote a poem about a mirror?
Silvia wrote this poem the same year she committed suicide. The reason why she wrote a poem about a mirror is because at that time she was doing a deep introspection and she did not like what she saw, she was afraid of growing older. She also mentioned her fear of growing older in another journal that she wrote.
Quotations for support:
When Plath was young she looked at the mirror and see herself superficially; she did not look deep into herself:
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike” (789).
But as Plath ages, She begins to look into herself deeper than just the physical appearance.
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
searching my reaches for what she really is” (789).
And in the end she finally finds what she really believes she is, a girl who drowned to become an old woman.
“In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish” (790).
Question: Do you look into a mirror or into a lake?
Works Cited
Keatyng, Peter. A celebration, this is. . Retrieved 02/10/04.
Poet of the month. . Cyber poet’s niche. Retrieved 02/10/04.
