Mirror by Sylvia Plath (c.b.s.e. Class 10 English Communicative)

                                           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 a 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.

Sylvia Plath was one of the pioneers of the Confessional Poetry Movement in America during 1950s and early 60s. The Confessional poets spoke of the wasteland within a human being. They wrote about issues that weren't considered "Topics of Polite Conversation" during that time. To put it starkly their work was inspired by human misery. They spoke of personal losses and traumas bravely and found an outlet in poetry.
Plath wrote some of the most haunting poems that were unabashedly personal in nature. She probably found it therapeutic to siphon off the poison in her heart by confessing to the world

In "Mirror" Sylvia speaks of a woman facing the dusk of her life and how she is unable to control or stop time from its relentless march forward. In an almost empathetic way she has described this sorrow of loss of beauty and youth via a non living object--a mirror. A mirror that has seen the lady as a pretty young girl progressively aging into a wrinkled old woman.

Literary Devices used: Personification, metaphor and simile (there are others too but understand and memorise these only. They are enough for your boards)

 I am silver and exact--------------- unmisted by love or dislike.
Using personification the poetess introduces the Mirror as the narrator and it calls itself Silver and exact. 

●In a literal sense a mirror has a silvery tint or hue (colour) to it, it is exact because it is accurate and shows each minute detail of a person's face. 
●Preconception means "to create an opinion of someone or something before directly experiencing it" i.e. the mirror doesn't judge you on someone else's opinions. It shows you exactly as you are without any personal verdicts or otherwise.
● This line casts the previous line in a better light. The mirror "swallows" ( another personification. A human ability.) i.e. absorbs any and everything and reflects them all back truthfully. It neither adds to ones beauty nor does it subtract from it. (people keep adding new details to a piece of gossip and mutates it completely , the mirror doesn't do that)
● "Unmisted" i.e. unaffected by dislike or affection. The mirror as explained before is truthful. It shows a person her/his face as it is. The mirror doesn't enhance beauty and nor does it deliberately mar a visage. 

  I am not cruel only truthful--------------- separate us over and over.

●The mirror appeals to us not to think it cruel for revealing flaws of a person's face. It is the mirror's inherent quality to be truthful. Truth could sometimes be cruel. It is not the mirror's intentions to hurt anyone.

● It calls itself "the eye of a little God" [metaphor]. It looks at all beings equally and meets out the same treatment to all and sundry. Only in one way is it different from an eye. It is four cornered instead of round.

● If no one is looking into the mirror or if it is dark then the opposite wall (pink in colour and spotted) is reflected in the mirror. The wall has always been pink ( colour choice shows it must be a women's room). It has reflected the wall for so long that it has become a part of its existence. A companion. A friend. 

Now I am a lake---------------------searching my reaches for what she really is.

●Another metaphor. The mirror compares itself to a lake. Possible allusion to the story of Narcissus a greek youth of great beauty who drowned in a lake looking at himself. 

● Another reason could be that the woman has lost her youth and beauty. The mirror has stood as a testimony, a witness to her bloom and now her wilt. The mirror's memories of her young self are as deep as a lake. 

● The woman "bends" over it i.e. peers closely at herself trying to see some left over vestiges of her beauty.

Then she turns to those-----------------agitation of hands.

●To appease herself she tries to conceal her facial flaws by staying in the muted light of candles and moons. But they are liars. They soften her face lending it a glow. She smiles when she is around them.

● But when she turns to the mirror she rewards it with her tears and wringing of her hands for showing her the truth.

I am important --------------- like a terrible fish.

● Despite her frowns and sorrow that she shows the mirror, it knows its value. The mirror is valuable to her. Her constant comrade in her battle against the ravages of time. She can't be separated from it. Day or night she looks at herself.

●Mirror informs us that the woman was once in full bloom of youth. Beautiful, graceful and full of life. Sadly that girl is lost. 

● Each progressive day an older, defeated version of that pretty girl stares back at her and she is helpless.

●Finally a simile. The woman is like a fish out of water desperate, terrified, gasping for life or help. But its terminal. Old age and ultimately death are upon her and she has to face them alone.

[TALK ABOUT DEPRESSING POEMS!!!]