The expression ‘eye of the little god, four cornered’ means the mirror compares itself to a god. As gods are divine beings without the taint of subjectivity or bias, so mirror is free of any bias and prejudice against anybody. He like a god is free of like or dislike against anyone.

The poem has no rhyme scheme, nor does it use any end rhymes.

The poetic devices in the poem ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath are:

• Personification: Personifies animals, nonliving and abstract things to human life.
• Metaphor: This device implies a hidden comparison or depicts an underlying meaning and not a literal meaning.
• Simile: Compares two entities directly and emphatically.

It has no particular meter, pace or rhyming scheme. However, Plath does use slant rhymes to enhance the effectiveness. The poem is divided into 2 stanza both 9 lines each. Giving the poem a symmetrical look.

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately, Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.” This means that the the narrator is a personified mirror, indicated by the first-person use of the personal pronoun “I”.

The mirror, in line 5, is comparing itself to the eye of a “little god.” Indeed, the mirror is getting a little high and mighty here, saying that it’s powerful. It’s also saying something about what it thinks a god is like – not cruel, but truthful.

1 Answer. The ‘terrible fish’ refers to the fear of ageing that rises from the depths of her repressed mind, it also symbolizes the woman’s self loathing and perception of herself as being unworthy of being loved and as old as a fish.

Answer. The woman turns to the moons and candles because they are liars , when she turns to the lake to find her lost beauty she finds blemishes and nothing else . She calls the moon and candles as “liars” because they hid the woman’s blemishes and wrinkles in their dim light.

Explain this personification. The candle as well as the moon are “liars” due to the fact that they are not honest like the reflection in the water, they are lying about what is really being seen.

The mirror compares itself to a “little god.” This is an example of a metaphor comparing the reflection of the mirror which reflects everything that it sees to a deity. This gives the mirror the ability to swallow as if it were a person. In stanza 2, the mirror becomes a lake.

Explanation: In this metaphor, the lake is compared to a mirror. This metaphor suggests that when the lake is calm it looks like a mirror. When water is still it is very reflective and can be described as a mirror. Another way to think about it is, while playing at a lake, if you go out too far, you can get lost.

Her teeth were pearls. (This means her teeth were white like pearls, not that each tooth was actually a pearl.) The baby’s cheeks were two rosy apples. (This means the baby’s cheeks are round and red, not really apples.) Writers use metaphors to make their writing colorful and you can to.