Sylvia Plath

When Sylvia Plath was just 8 years old, her father died of complications from diabetes, which could have been prevented if he had sought treatment earlier. Perhaps in part because of this death, Plath struggled with depression throughout her life, which she ended in February of 1963, after she and her husband, poet Ted Hughes, separated, leaving Plath to care for her two children.

Read Plath's poem, “Mirror (Links to an external site.),” which was written in 1961, roughly two years before Plath’s suicide. Note: Ted Hughes published it ten years later.

Answer the following questions

• What is the effect of Plath’s choice to write the poem from a mirror’s perspective?

• Why do you think Plath switched the perspective from a mirror to a lake?

• Would this poem read differently if a man had written it? What about if a man was visiting the lake?

• How old do you think the woman in the poem is? Why?

• Is growing older a frightening concept to you? Why or why not?

 Listen to Plath read "Mirror" here (Links to an external site.)