The central theme of both the poems is old age. Sylvia Plath and Jenny
Joseph express their ideas of old age through the poems Mirror
Mirror and Warning
Introduction
The central theme of both the poems is old age. Sylvia Plath and Jenny
Joseph express their ideas of old age through the poems ‘Mirror’ and
‘Warning’. The intention of Sylvia Plath and Jenny Joseph are
different. The message they want to get through to us differs. Jenny
Joseph gearing us up towards old age through Warning and Sylvia Plath
making old age sound terrible in Mirror.
In the poem mirror, Sylvia Plath uses a lot of dull and negative words
making old age sound terrifying “darkness” “drowned” and “terrible”.
“Then she turns to those liars, the candles the moon” in this sentence
she refers to the candle or the moon being a liar putting a negative
image. Where as candles and moons are know to be a source of light
making it positive. However the poem is very complicated to understand
because it has a lot of hidden meanings. She use a lot of vivid
language and personification meaning bringing lifeless object to life,
for example when she says “ Now I’m a lake” first line second
paragraph. The lady also portrays her life to be like a non-living
thing mirror, lake. This is because she describes her life to be less
objective comparison to Warning. Here Jenny Joseph describes the lady
to be quite cheerful, happy, and looking forward to old age. There is
a rhythmic pattern in Warning. The repetition of the word ‘and’ and ‘
I shall’ goes on through out the whole poem. The word and suggest
Jenny Joseph is writing while she’s thinking, as she goes along
perhaps. This is telling the readers she is looking forward to her
future and old a...
... middle of paper ...
...tive, uglier.
The word terrible is used in both the poems. Mirror “Like a terrible
fish” giving it a negative image. And Warning “You can wear terrible
shirts and grow more fat” making it a positive word. The woman in
Mirror is dreading old age in fear of becoming uglier. And the woman
in warning looks forward to it believing that it is fun being old,
like having her youth back.
Conclusion
I think ‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph is more successful in getting its
message across to the readers. Her message is that old age can be
really fun, and after reading the poem I believe so too. On the other
hand ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath is also slightly effective but not as
much. Sylvia Plath is trying to say old age is something to dread
because of how you may look but no everything is about your
appearance. Overall Warning wins for being more effective and lively.
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