Nine by nine
Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphors" begins by stating that it is a "riddle in nine syllables." The next eight lines metaphorically describe pregnancy. The second and third lines portray the expecting mother as "An elephant, a ponderous house," and "A melon strolling on two tendrils." Most women that have been pregnant would agree with these comparisons. As the months progress during pregnancy, not only do clothes not fit over the "melon" anymore, but one feels quite awkward balancing and "strolling on two tendrils" that are no longer visible when looking at the ground. The poem continues "O red fruit," which refers to the "red" blood of birth and the anticipated child, the "fruit." N
" Plath gives an obvious clue to the riddle in line 7 when she writes, "I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf. By the time she entered Smith College in 1950, Sylvia had already been published in Seventeen and Mademoiselle magazines. In line 8, she writes, "I've eaten a bag of green apples," which suggests the morning sickness that some expecting mothers experience. There are nine lines in the poem and nine months in a normal pregnancy. Finally, the last line indicates the absoluteness of pregnancy, once you have "Boarded the train there's no getting off. After recovering in a private hospital where she received electroshock treatment, she returned to school for the spring semester where she graduated with honors in spite of missing the previous semester. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. She and Hughes had two children and soon after divorced. The persona in the poem refers to herself as "I" which is the ninth letter of the alphabet. Plath had her first book, The Colossus, published in 1960. On February 11, 1963, at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath killed herself with the gas from her stove. The "stage" could have many meanings including, a particular time in a life, or a "stage" where a performance will occur, the birth. "A cow in calf" once again referring to a large animal, Plath provides the reader with the answer. " A mother is a "means" for the development, growth and birth of a child.
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