October 11, 2004 Justin Perry
             Sylvia Plath's Sow recounts an escapade in which a neighbor witnesses their neighbor's gargantuan hog for the first time. Plath makes use of diction, allusion, and onomatopoeia to describe how massive and imposing the swine is. She also characterizes the uniqueness of the sow by telling the reader all that the pig is not. The poem also features a shift during which the diction and language change, and the perception of the pig moves from awe inspiring to disgusting. In Sow Plath makes use of figurative language and literary devices to illustrate the tremendousness of the hog to the reader.
             In the first few stanzas of Sow, Plath describes everything that the sow is not to the reader. She mentions that the pig is not a china suckling with a penny slot (Piggy Bank), it isn't a pig ripe for eating, nor is it a milk-bloated mother hog. These three 'stereotypes' are the most common images of pigs, and Plath makes sure to discount their validity in reference to the sow. She does this to impress upon the reader the uniqueness and sheer hulk of the sow.
             Another device employed by Plath to illustrate the impressiveness of the sow is allusion. First, she describes the sow as possessing "Brobdingnag bulk." In Gulliver's travels the Brobdingnags were a race of giants, this allusion helps exemplify how massive the hog is compared to average pigs. Also, Plath says that "our marvel blazoned a knight, helmed, in cuirass." This phrase alludes to the fact that the sow is as regal and spectacular as a knight in shining armor. These usages of allusion help portray to the reader the fantastic nature of the sow using 'real' examples.
             The most useful tool that Plath uses to help depict the sow is descriptive language. She uses onomatopoeia such as grunt, thwacked, and shrilling to help further describe t
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