The poem creates a lot of powerful imagery, for example in the second line of Metaphors; the narrator portrays herself as a “Ponderous house” this means she thinks that she is housing the baby until it is born. Furthermore, her stomach is also a secure place for the baby to stay until it is ready to be born.
The third line has also got good imagery because the narrator illustrates herself as being “a melon strolling on two tendrils”. She is saying that she feels really big and round like a melon, which is one of the biggest fruits. Also, the words “strolling” and “tendrils” give the reader an image of a woman, who’s really obese, who has small legs that you can hardly see, plus she can’t walk properly because she is weighed down by all her fat and they might collapse at any second.
In the first three lines the feeling is very negative, yet in line four the feeling becomes much more positive because she starts talking about her baby. When the narrator says “O red fruit” she is saying that the baby is really precious to her like a red fruit. Also, the narrator says the baby is like “ivory” which is very precious and it’s a light material. It is elephant’s tusks as well; this is a very effective image because she compares herself to an elephant so the baby is like her tusks. And “fine timbers” is like the baby’s structure because it is very fragile.
In the fifth line the mood changes yet again to negative because the narrator starts talking abut herself more. When she says “this loaf’s big with its yeasty rising” the reader gets an image of her stomach growing bigger and bigger without stopping like yeast in a loaf of bread.
In line six the narrator says “money’s new-minted in this fat purse”, the start of the sentence, which is a positive metaphor, she is saying that the baby is brand new, important and that it is precious like money. In contrast, “fat purse” is a negative metaphor because she depicts herself as being really fat.
In the next line she gets even more negative by saying “I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf” which means she thinks that the baby is just using her as a place to stay until it is born when maybe it would just go away to fulfil its own life without her. It also sounds as if she doesn’t believe that she is related to the baby somehow. When she says “a stage” she means it is just a stage in the baby’s life.
In line eight the narrator says “I’ve eaten a bag of green apples” this shows that she has a craving like some pregnant women do. You can tell this because people wouldn’t normally eat a whole bag of green apples.
The last line is a very dramatic way to end a poem and it basically sums up what it is like being pregnant. “Boarded the train there’s no getting off” this is the ninth line and it represents the ninth month when the baby is being born. Also, she is saying that she has gone too far so there’s no going back. This is a negative line; however, it could also be seen as being positive because she could be saying that she is determined to care and love her baby for the rest of her life.
Overall, I think Sylvia Plath’s use of imagery to depict pregnancy is brilliant because it gives the reader an effective image of the narrator’s feelings.
