Essay on the mirror“Mirror” is a disturbing poem that exemplifies the tension of inner and outer beauty, as well as the female problem of aging and losing one's charm. In the poem, Plath is a personified mirror. The first stanza begins by describing the mirror as “silver and exact.” The poem goes on to say, “I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see, I immediately swallow it as it is, without love or dislike.” This means that the mirror does not make judgments, but swallows what it sees, reflecting that image without any alteration. Plath describes the mirror as not cruel, but only truthful because it always shows exactly the image that is shown to it. The first verse ends by saying, “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It's pink, with specks. I've looked at it for so long that I think it's a part of my heart. But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us in time.” Here he describes for the first time how most of the time he looks across the empty room meditating on a little girl's pink-speckled wall. He has seen the wall for so long...