Blog #2 Tyler C. "Metaphors"

On Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphors"

The poem can be summarized as a string of metaphors for pregnancy.  My first reaction to the poem was noticing how clever its structure is.  Each line is 9 syllables, and the entire poem is 9 lines, which I'm guessing signifies the 9 months of pregnancy.  The first line, "I'm a riddle in nine syllables." I assume is referring to each line of the poem, since the concept of a "riddle" and a metaphor are somewhat similar in that the purpose of both concepts is to reveal deeper meanings that require deep thought to figure out.  It's also interesting that in six of the lines, she uses an animal or food as the object for her metaphor.

The message I got from the poem is that she feels pregnancy is viewed by society as a means to an end.  From the chapter on feminist theory, I believe it can be related mostly to Showalter's gynocriticism. "By exposing these inaccurate pictures (often caricatures) of women, gynocritics . . . provides . . . critics with four models that address the nature of women’s writing: the biological, the linguistic, the psychoanalytic, and the cultural."  The first few lines of the poem use metaphors to show how pregnancy is depicted visually, and offers a caricature-like image of a pregnant woman.  From the fourth line onwards, she transitions her imagery to refer what she's pregnant with.  A fruit, a loaf, etc.  On the sixth line, "Money's new-minted in this fat purse." this can be interpreted as her being the purse which contains money, or value.  Her metaphors from this line and the next ("I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.") can basically be interpreted as herself being worthless and the entity she's pregnant with being the only thing of true value,  i.e. pregnancy being a means to an end (as viewed by men/society.)
The last two lines, I think, are metaphors for some type of regret regarding the pregnancy.  "I've eaten a bag of green apples" makes me think she feels sick, and "Boarding the train" where there's no getting off seems like regret or unpreparedness.  Either she doesn't feel ready and/or doesn't want to deal with the "burden" of her pregnancy.