What literary devices does Sylvia Plath use?
Plath’s “Mirror” has been widely studied for several literary devices including metaphor, personification, allusion and imagery. Each give suggestion at meaning. Personification takes it’s form in the direct metaphors of “I am silver and exact(alluding to a mirror)” and “Now I am a lake”.
What is the metaphor in mushrooms?
If you dig a little deeper, though, you’ll find that the poem is a big whoppin’ extended metaphor. The mushrooms seem to represent an oppressed population—most likely women—who are mounting a quiet revolution. At the end of the poem, we’re told that, by morning, they’ll have the respect they deserve.
What is the theme of the poem mushrooms?
Freedom and Confinement. Throughout “Mushrooms,” the mushrooms are struggling in their own way to be free. The most popular interpretation is that these mushrooms represent the struggles of women to gain respect and rights…
What does Whitley mean in the poem mushrooms?
These friendly fungi tend to poke their heads up from the soil at night, so it makes sense that the speaker describes this as happening overnight. “Whitely” describes the color of a lot of mushrooms. It’s interesting that the speaker describes them as growing whitely, though. How exactly can you do something whitely?
What is Sylvia Plath’s poetry style?
An example would be the poems of Sylvia Plath, which tend to be in the writing style of confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is used to address personal experiences like depression, relationships or trauma, and have an autobiographical writing style.
What is figurative language?
Figurative language creates comparisons by linking the senses and the concrete to abstract ideas. Words or phrases are used in a non-literal way for particular effect, for example simile, metaphor, personification.
What poetic devices does Plath employ and how do they affect your understanding of the poem?
Plath uses an extended metaphor, meaning that throughout the poem she is comparing mushrooms to women without using the words “like” or “as.” She also brings in assonance, which is when two words close to each other begin with the same vowel.
Who is the speaker in the poem mushrooms?
All that said, it’s hardly ever a good idea think of the poet as the speaker. For example, we’re pretty sure that Sylvia Plath was not a mushroom. The speaker of the poem speaks from the perspective of these frustrated fungi, and seems to use them to symbolize the whole of the oppressed group of which she’s a part.
Which poetic devices does Plath employ and how do they affect your understanding of the poem use text evidence to support your response?
Expert Answers Plath uses an extended metaphor, meaning that throughout the poem she is comparing mushrooms to women without using the words “like” or “as.” She also brings in assonance , which is when two words close to each other begin with the same vowel.
What does heaving the needles mean?
Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Like with the nose and toes thing back in the second stanza, the speaker again describes the caps of mushrooms using a human body part: “fists.” The idea of a raised fist totally makes us think of revolutionaries of some kind—you know, “Fight the power!” and all that.
How are mushrooms personified in Sylvia Plath’s poem?
The literary devices used in the poem are personification, metaphor and allusion. Plath personified mushrooms by giving them human characteristics, found in the lines of “earless and eyeless, perfectly voiceless”.
How does Sylvia Plath use the five senses?
Throughout the poem, Plath employs imagery, or description using the five senses, to convey what the mushrooms are like. Words like “whitely” give us a visual picture of the mushrooms, as does describing their heads as “soft fists” breaking through the earth.
What does Sylvia Plath mean by toes and noses?
The words “toes” and “noses” are used to describe the shape of the mushroom caps. They’re rounded and white, just like some skin would be. The “loam” is the soil that “Our toes,” the mushroom’s heads, are poking through. They seek out “air” as if they’ve been devoid of it for some time.
Who is the persona in the mushroom poem?
The persona of the poem is the author herself who had two failed suicidal attempts and re-evaluated by the persona in the poem either from a perspective of a rebellious present. The literary devices used in the poem are personification, metaphor and allusion.