thomas hardy

   In the poem we get a sense of time like she has been sat looking at the mirror for a while as the poem says things like “over and over” and “day after day”.

  While reading “Mirror” the audience considers the mental state Sylvia was in when she split up with her husband, Ted Hughes and how she was on the edge from her father’s death as a child. This makes the reader believe that the poem is about Sylvia Plath’s life.

   I believe that the beginning of the poem describes Sylvia as a young woman who is beautiful and popular. “unmisted by love or dislike.”. This saying she is always loved and always has a friend or someone close to her to rely on. But in the middle it starts to describe her as an old woman who is becoming less beautiful and is becoming less popular and pretty. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis but it seems like Sylvia wants to hang on to her beauty and the lies people tell her about how she is still beautiful. “Then she turns to those liars.” This also makes me think that this is another reason for Sylvia’s mental illness.

Comparisons of “I look into my glass” and “mirror”.

   “I look into my glass” is about on old man who doesn’t like how old his appearance is, “Shakes this fragile frame at eve”. This implies the man is really dainty and is probably really skinny which he doesn’t like

   I believe the poem was written when Thomas Hardy was grieving for his decided wife, “could lonely wait my endless rest.” I believe that here Thomas is thinking that when you die you are alone and alone for ever. This makes Thomas sound like a grieving man who is thinking constantly about what after life is and what happens to you when you die.

   I believe that Thomas hardy was waiting to dies when writing “I look into my glass” and would be happy to die at any time, “shakes this fragile frame at eve”. I believe that Thomas Hardy’s “fragile frame” is himself, his own body and that he doesn’t really care about it and wouldn’t be bothered if he died.

   “I look into my glass” is set up in 3 regular stanzas which make the poem read like a song. This is unusual because most songs and tunes tend to be happy and “I look into my glass” has sad depressing word throughout.

   Both “Mirror” and “I look into my glass” are depressing poems but “Mirror” is talking from an inanimate object where as “I look into my glass” is written from a person’s feelings. Both poems are also about love but “I look into my glass” is about losing someone you love where as “Mirror” is about self-love and how she (the mirror) has to give itself self esteem to keep itself going.

Both poems seem to be based on the author’s lives and the problems they have both encounted. “I look into my glass” is about the death of Thomas Hardy’s wife and how much he grieves for her. “Mirror” is about Sylvia Plath’s ex-husband and of how he broke her heart when he had an affair.

  Both the poems are alike with the genre and are both depressing but they where written from two different scenarios, with different feeling and using different points of view (like the mirror and the glass) to draw effect.