Metaphors by Plath

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Ariana Laguna Barnes/Walter Pima 102 November 26 2012 Metaphors I'm a riddle in nine syllables, An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils, O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf's big with its yeasty rising. Money's new-minted in this fat purse. I'm a mean, a stage, a cow in a calf. I've eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there's no getting off. Sylvia Plath's "Metaphors" is a short riddle, one stanza and seeing how it is short each line can be interpreted in one essay. It talks about a woman feeling insignificant in the midst of a pregnancy. The first line gives an opening introduction to the poem that gives a clue to the overall meaning of the poem. The poem begins by stating to the audience that it is a riddle to be solved. A riddle is not easily figured out and it needs to be carefully considered to find its meaning. The nine syllables and nine lines of the poem signify the nine months of pregnancy. The poem proceeds to use rich metaphors to compare the narrator and different objects in order to make the audience see and feel the point more clearly. In line two, the narrator states that she is an elephant and a ponderous house. This line expresses how the narrator feels about her pregnant body and like the second line, a comical undertone underlays the third line, "A melon walking around on its skinny tendrils", puts a humorous image in one's mind. When looking at a pregnant woman, it is ways to see the resemblance. The narrator looks back in the fourth line, surveys her previous thoughts and summarized them. The red fruit in line four returns the idea of a melon. A fruit is the result of reproduction and is the desired part of a plant. In farming, the plant is merely used to produce a fruit harvest. The plant's worth is in its fruit. By comparing herself to the plant, the
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