today let's do a line by line analysis of Sylvia pl's mirror first I'll read the poem mirror I am silver and exact I have no preconceptions whatever I see I swallow immediately just as it is unmisted by love or dislike I am not cruel only truthful the eye of a little God four cornered most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall it is pink with speckles I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart but it flickers faces and darkness separate us over and over now I am Al Lake a woman bends over me searching my reaches for what she really is then she turns to those Liars the candles or the moon I see her back and reflect it Faithfully she rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands I am important to her she comes and goes each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness in me she has drowned a young girl and in me an old woman Rises toward her day after day like a terrible fish this is a poem I discovered only recently and it immediately became one of my favorites first let's gloss over were the literal happenings of the poem after that summary we'll go deeper and take a look at various interpretations and how poetic devices and peculiar diction May support those [Music] ideas so the speaker of the poem is a mirror in the first stanza the mirror explains its sense of objectivity it is honest fair exact it does not like or dislike anything its judgment is not clouded by emotions it shows reality exactly how it is so exact and certain is the mirror's projection of reality that it calls itself the eye of a god this is to differentiate it from humans whose mortal fallible minds are tainted and clouded by feelings even while the mirror claims to be the eye of a god it has some human qualities we see that it becomes very much attached to the wall it faces it stands across from a pink wall from time to time faces or Darkness might separate the mirror and the wall but for most of the time the mirror sees just that wall and so the wall has become a part of its heart in the second stanza the mirror is now a lake just like a mirror on the wall a lake has the ability to reflect images and this ability is obviously the ense of the Persona it is not the mirror itself that is the core of its being but rather its ability to reflect reality the leg sees a woman bending over it from time to time the woman is agitated because she has aged near the end it is clear that the woman was once a young beautiful girl but is now old and miserable now let's get into the deep analysis back to line one I am silver and exact I have no preconceptions as we know this is the mirror speaking so personification is a play the sentences themselves are exact short and to the point with no fluff no feeling just two statements of fact the exactness of the mirror is in how it reflects reality it shows you what is in front of it exactly as it is the exactness is also in its shape it is a perfect square or rectangle straight lines precise edges precise Corners the mir's physical form reflects its depiction of reality just as the lines and angles are perfect it sees and reflects reality perfectly The Mirror Has No preconceptions this means it doesn't have any opinions it does not make any assumptions any judgments it just tells the plain Simple Truth by the way if you're looking for imagery in the poem you can find it in silver and exact as this describes vividly the form and color of the mirror we also have imagery in four corner okay let's jump to line two whatever I see I swallow immediately this means the mirror takes whatever image is in front of it and spits it back out there is no embellishment or concealment it doesn't correct anything it doesn't add or subtract anything there are no filters if you stand in front of a mirror the mirror will not think about the image or try to process or understand it it will simply swallow your image and reflect it back the mirror swallows the image just as it is unmisted by love or dislike again the mirror does not love or dislike anything if you love something you might be biased in seeing it in a positive light being in love with someone for example might make you unable to see their flaws if you dislike someone then you will likely see it in a negative light in that way as humans our vision is misted Tainted imperfect but the mirror's vision is clear there's no mist no fog no smoke this Mist That clouds the human vision is what deceives us the deception is heard in the serpentine cilin of the lines whatever I see I swallow immediately just as it is unmisted by love or dislike do you hear the repeated sound this is called sibilance sometimes the truth hurts and when people are too honest and too blunt we might think they're cruel the mirror defends itself in the next line saying it is not cruel only truthful it means we should not see truth as cruelty if someone says hey I don't like you or you stink or you're terrible at singing We should not think they being cruel instead we should appreciate their honesty in the next line the mirror elevates itself even further it is the eye of a little God for cornered now pay attention to this line because it's very important the mirror is not the god instead it is the eye of a God so what is the god the God is reflection itself the mirror is just one way by which things are reflected just one eye of the god of reflection in the next stanza we see that a lake is yet another eye of this God but let's leave that for later so why does this mirror consider itself to be the eye of a little god well because for one it is not affected by feelings or subjectivity it sees everything exactly as it is and two it cannot be fooled if you put a blue circle in front of a mirror it will swallow and reflect the blue circle put a beautiful face in front of a mirror it will swallow and reflect a beautiful face it has the Godlike quality of always seeing things for what they are the mirror never makes a mistake but the mirror is the eye of a little God here we have an ironic description maybe a Jos of greatness and smallness how can a God be little aren't Gods supposed to be great and mighty well the thing about mirrors and lakes and other reflective things is they're very limited in what they can reflect if you put something beside or behind a mirror it can't see or reflect it so the mirror isn't an allseeing eye it's not really like God who sees everything also mirrors can only reflect the surface of things a mirror cannot show you a person's heart or mind it cannot read thoughts or intentions for this reason it is a little God there are many limitations to its power we see that it often meditates on the opposite wall for most hours of the day no one uses the mirror and so it just reflects the wall across from it but why does the mirror say it meditates this further emphasizes that the mirror is somewhat Divine Godlike it is above emotion meditation is seen as a way to strip oneself or at least get control of of one's emotions especially negative emotions it is also a way in which some people reflect on themselves and even communicate with God we can see the wall through the mirror's eyes it is pink with speckles this visual imagery somewhat contrasts with the serious unemotional texture of the poem suddenly we have this girly bright color with speckles the room might be in Nursery it might be the room of an artist whatever it is the pink and Speckles reflect human emotion and the living environment of whoever owns the my but the Speckles could also be splashes of blood or spots and spoils in the wall paint there is no way to be sure but what we do know is that the mirror stares or well meditates upon this wall for so long that it has become a part of its heart now this is a strange shift before the mirror seemed to be heartless unemotional unattached but here we see that it becomes emotionally attached to the wall it also ironic that the mirror becomes not attached to its owner who is a person but instead to a wall which is not a living thing this might reflect the modern materialistic culture where instead of valuing people and using things we value things and use people there's another meaning to the world becoming a part of the mirors heart because the mirror reflects the wall so often the mirror might actually think that the wall has become a part of it or it has become a part of the wall in that a miror has no inherent color it is what it reflects since it almost always reflects the pink wall The Mirror Has in a sense become the pink wall as an implication we as humans are what we eat remember line two the mirror swallows or absorbs images in immediately it has swallowed the pink wall so much that it has become the pink wall in the same way whatever we as humans swallow whatever we listen to watch eat think about we will become and eventually reflect but it flickers this flickering is more visual imagery the flickering of the wall speaks to the brief interruptions sometimes for moments the mirror cannot look at the pink wall because something or someone blocks its view sometimes it might be a face for example when the owner of the mirror might be putting on makeup other times it might be Darkness for example when the owner turns off the lights we're not sure if the interrupting faces are actually different faces or the same face over and over again well I think it's both in that I think it's actually a single face that is continually aging becoming many different faces over the passage of time several hints so far indicate that a lot of time has passed throughout the first stanza we see most of the time in line six and so long in line seven indicating the significance of passing time the flickering near the end of the stanza also gives us a fast forwarded view of time passing think of those time-lapse videos in which we see flickers of day and night as days pass within seconds over and over also shows us that a lot of times is passing the repetition in over and over tells us that even though a lot of time is passing the same thing is happening every day the woman is continually looking at her reflection in the mirror there's a sense of monotony changeless we see a similar repetition near the end of the poem in day after day we'll get there eventually so stanza 1 focuses not on the woman in the poem but on the mirror and its experiences the woman is just something that interrupts the mirror every now and then in stanza 2 we will learn much more about the woman okay now we are transported from the room with a pink wall to a lake the same God that has the mirror as an eye now has the lake as an eye this God sees a woman bending over it the imagery of a bending woman might bring to mind an old woman with a walking stick who can no longer stand up straight aging has now become a focal point of the poem The Woman is searching the lak's reaches for what she really is this is a difficult line so let's break it down to search the reaches of something means to search it thoroughly every nook and cranny now we have to realize that even though both lakes and mirrors are reflective these are two very different things a mirror is a flat man-made object that we can get cheaply at a nearby shop a lake however is a deep natural boundless entity its depth and mystery means one can search it you can dive into a lake and search under it for Treasure or for bodies but this woman isn't searching for Treasure or bodies she searching for herself she's trying to understand who she is but remember neither a mirror or lake can tell who a person is instead they can only reflect what a person looks like the woman is making a mistake in trying to find who she is by looking into the lake this means she is assessing who she is by her physical appearance alone this introduces the theme of appearance versus reality and also the theme of physicality versus spirituality what's on the outside versus what's on the inside also there is the idea of the obsession with physical Beauty which in turn comes with self-esteem issues perhaps now more than ever people judge themselves and others based on appearance alone this social media world makes that problem even bigger by creating a platform on which beautiful faces usually crafted by filters Photoshop or plastic surgery can get a lot of likes there's an immense pressure to live up to these unrealistic standards in order to be approved and validated by Society anyway back to the point the woman looks into the lake and is searching for who she is but how did the woman go from the pink room to a lake why the sudden change in venue well my idea is this there is no Lake the woman is still in the room looking at the mirror but now she is searching for herself in it she starts to delude herself into thinking that there is some depth some profound Insight that can be found in the mirror so in her mind the mirror becomes a lake since the mirror takes on the depth and size of a lake we could call this both Hyperbole and metaphor it is a metaphor because the mirror now takes on the quality of depth that a lake has it is a hyperbole because the mirror is now said to be something much bigger deeper and much more powerful than itself we see that the woman turns to those Liars in the next line those Liars are the candles or the moon remember in the first stanza especially in line four we learn that the mirror is truthful now we have a contrast as Liars are introduced the mirror and candle represent the woman's Comforts the nice soft lights and wonderful fragrances the makeup the filters the things that make her look and feel more beautiful younger the woman hates the mirror that shows her what she really looks like she instead turns to things that can create a sympathetic illusion for her the Moon is often linked to Insanity in literature and the connection is even discussed scientifically in fact the word lunatic literally means Moon truck here we see that the woman prefers to be insane she prefers to live a delusional life rather than accept the fact that she's getting older and her face is changing so while the woman turns to the moon or can her back is turned to the lake similarly we might prefer to turn our backs on the truth when it is too painful or ugly for us to look at the lake reflects the woman's back exactly as it is the reflection is faithful the mirror here is painted to be loyal and honest trustworthy but the problem is the woman is not interested in seeing the truth the woman after seeing her reflection in the lake sheds tears and her hands become agitated maybe she angrily slaps the surface of the lake so the Rippling water will no longer reflect Her Image but her efforts are in vain as the water will eventually settle again and the image will again be reflected or if as I suspect there is no Lake to begin with the splashing of the water could metaphorically represent the breaking of the mirror she smashes the mirror into pieces because it reflects her as she is she is frustrated ated disappointed angry she's getting older she's losing her beauty she can't stop the flow of time any more than she can stop the flow of a river she can't do anything and she's unable to accept reality for what it is there's so much pressure for women to remain young and attractive in this male dominated Society even when a woman is highly educated and has accomplished much her looks and age are still critical factors in how a lot of people judge her even in how other women judge her a woman's age and Beauty are her social currency and this woman is losing hers with every tick and talk of time do you know who a narcissist is I promise it's related to the PO a narcissist is a person who thinks they are more important smarter more beautiful than everyone else they are always right they're egotistical and prideful they often treat others with disregard and are often emotionally abusive to those who they claim to love in Greek mythology narcissus was a hunter who fell in love with his own reflection that he saw in a spring he was beautiful and decided that the only person worthy of his love and attention was his own reflection pining away at his own reflection he eventually killed himself and this story is the beginning of the word narcissist I bring this up because the woman's habit of staring at a reflection in the lake might very well be alluding to this myth whether one becomes obsessed with their beauty or frustrated with their loss of beauty paying too much attention to how one looks is dangerous we see how addicted the woman is to looking at and pining over her reflection I am important to her the lake the mirror the reflection is important to the woman again we see the passing of time we see this as a habit of the woman she comes and goes in the next line we see that she does this every day by the way since we spoke of Illusion earlier the situation of the mirror on the wall might also be alluding to the story of Snow White from which we get the line mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all this mirror is truthful and instead of telling the woman comforting lies it simply reflects what it sees the next two lines show us the change that the woman has undergone not as a gradual passing of time but rather as a dramatic shift it is as if one day she's a young girl and the next day she's an old woman this is a stark contrast in age the young girl has drowned is dead is no more what Remains What rises from the lake is a miserable woman through simile she's compared to a terrible fish when struggling and fluttering at the edge of a fish hook the hook being the obsession with her own appearance just as a fish spins its down breaths grasping at a worm at the Hook's end the woman spends even the last of her days grasping at her lost youth and Beauty the drowning of the woman tells us that she has spent her whole life looking at her reflection obsessed with how she looks in that sense The Mirror Has consumed has swallowed her and the last thing before we look at the poem's form this might be a stretch but I find the introduction of a terrible fish in the last to connect very craftily with the verb swallow from line two so the mirror swallows what it sees which is the woman the lake which is the mirror drowns the girl which is the woman and then spits out an old woman which is the woman then we have this terrible fish what does this strange connection remind you of just as the woman is trying to run away from her Destiny which is to grow old and eventually die just as she's trying to escape reality the biblical Jonah tried to escape his Destiny his calling and was consequently swallowed by what a terrible fish and he was spat out again right where he was meant to go in the first place the woman here like Jonah tried to no avail to escape fate the most important message of this poem might not be about appearance versus reality it might not be about us looking deep within beyond our skin to find our true self it might be that we must accept the authority of time the laws of nature the path to our Destinies we are destined and designed to grow old and die we should accept this fact of life and not resist the mirror is the eye of a little God but a much bigger God is time let's quickly look at the poem's form how do the words on the page reflect the poem's message first the poem is written in three verse so there is no rhyme scheme or metric pattern there's nothing fancy no embellishment this reflects how objective and strict the mirror is in how it reflects it does not sugarcoat anything we see two stanzas of equal length and the first stanza focuses on the mirror while the second stanza focuses on the woman both stanzas are of equal length and so they can represent the image of a reflection the mirror is reflecting what it sees the first stanza is reflecting the second stanza first we see the reflector the mirror in stanza 1 then we see the reflected the woman in stanza 2 when you look into the mirror do you like the truth you see and as always thanks for watching [Music] [Music]