A question to share form Sylvia Plath on a poem on 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 means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples;
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
Reading and Reacting
1.The speaker in this poem is a pregnant woman. Do all the metaphors seem appropriate? For instance, in what sense is the speaker "a means, a stage? (Line 7)?
2.If you were going to expand this poem, what other metaphors (or similes) would you add?
3.What are the "nine syllables" to which the speaker refers in the poem's first line? What significance does the number nine have in terms of the poem's subject? In terms of its form?
4.Would you say the speaker has a positive, negative, or neutral attitude toward her pregnancy? Which metaphors give you this impression?