Mirror

The poem is told in the first-person perspective, opening with the pronoun “I” and two short, standalone sentences. This introduces not only the mirror as speaker but the speaker’s distinctive voice. The words are simple and stripped of ornamentation in the same way that the speaker proposes to reflect the world. From the second line, it becomes clear that the mirror has an enveloping power: “Whatever I see I swallow immediately” (Line 2), bringing to mind an ancient being devouring a sacrifice. Though the speaker insists that they are “not cruel, only truthful” (Line 4), this image continues when the mirror professes itself to be “The eye of a little god” (Line 5).

There are two meanings to this distinct choice of words: in one respect, “god” refers to the mirror’s omnipotence and its ability to see all things exactly as they are, unfiltered through the cloudy lens of human emotion; in the other, the mirror recognizes its divine power over those who look upon it. This foreshadows the second stanza, in which there is a clear sense of worship between the mirror and the woman introduced in the second stanza.

In spite of the mirror’s all-seeing eye, its world in the first stanza is small and limited to a girl’s bedroom.