Question

How does the author of the poem integrate personification and metaphors to communicate her message?

Answer 1

The author integrates personification and metaphors to communicate her message in the poem, creating vivid imagery and evoking specific emotions in the reader.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the poem, the author integrates personification and metaphors to effectively communicate her message. For example, she personifies chaos as a pinch of joy and a bit of screaming, and she compares an infant sleeping to a milky sea. These personifications help to evoke specific emotions and create vivid imagery in the reader's mind. Additionally, the author uses metaphors such as comparing caramel to burnt sugar syrup and comparing chaos to joy.

Answer 2

Metaphors are used almost as much as personification in this passage, as the entire second stanza compares the mirror to a lake, but even before that metaphors are distinctly present. The mirror calls itself “the eye of a little god,” by that point in the poem, Plath has made sure that it’s clear that the mirror is distinguished as completely objective, “unmisted by love or dislike” and “not cruel, only truthful.”