Mushrooms - Sylvia Plath Overnight,
Mushrooms - Sylvia Plath
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.
why is it called mushrooms?
WHAT DOES THIS POEM MEAN?!?!?! can someone please tell me ..
This poem reflets sylvia plath’s view on feminism. if you take a closer look at her life background you will notice that she had no strong male figures in her life. Her father died when she was 8 years old and her husband left her for another woman. She hated her mother (she blamed her for the death of her father) so she didn’t have a strong female figure in her life either.
BAck to the point… this poem is a metephorical poem. Mushrooms are the metaphor for females. Women are slowly creeping their way to the top of power ranks until finally they have at least a “foot in the door"…
This poem could also mean what it plainly says, that mushrooms are slowly taking over the world because they are so small and no one suspects them… sooner or later they will be on your doorstep waiting to attack. That is what my professor taught me and I like that explanation better, hahaha!
Plath introduces us to a seemingly creepy and cunning entity in the first stanza of her poem. She describes from the mushrooms’ perspective, as they slowly, but surely, they emerge from the underground.
There is an ominous sense about the way in which the mushrooms “inherit the earth”. There is an impression of progressively louder actions by the mushrooms; firstly, their “soft fists”, and later their “hammers”, and “rams”. The boding mushrooms then begin to chant, “So many of us!” Even more disturbing is the idea of inevitability, put forward by Plath. Nobody sees the mushrooms, or stops them. “Our foot’s in the door” is Plath’s finishing remark, and this encapsulates the inexorable horror.
The mushrooms disconcerting mindset is coupled with Plath’s short, child-like verses; a juxtaposition which actually works to emphasize the imminent danger. Each stanza has three, five-syllable lines, which are not specifically rhythmical. As there are no predictable stresses, Sylvia Plath ensures a military beat cannot be attributed to her poem. This helps to highlight the covert, almost guerrilla-like tactics of the mushrooms.
Throughout the mushrooms’ invasion, they describe themselves. “We diet on…crumbs of shadow” shows how versatile the mushrooms are, but “we are meek, we are edible,” seems to contrast the very nature of their actions.
The language Plath uses is very contrasting to the content of the poem. In all of the stanzas, Plath uses relatively meagre words: The description of “bland-mannered” mushrooms acquiring the air is starkly different to the self-willed infestation that actually takes place.
I’m with you Mel, Mushrooms are gonna take over the world!!
I believe the deeper meaning to this poem was talking about how women are quietly coming into the world of jobs that once was a “mans place”. She is saying that little by little woman are taking over the job world and before men will realize what has happened the world will be ruled by women .*yes* j/k but thats what the poem says to me
No, no no! this poem is about females of before… Oo’’ of how they were shunned from politics and the ‘’meek’’ are bound to rule the world. the meek are the women and the ruling part isn’t rly literal. It’s metaphoric for the women rising up to political power. and this poem can also be taken as a pregnacy. “leafy bedding""small grains” are all signs of this. Furthermore, the voiceless part explains how women’s thoughts weren’t valued bak then and how men shunned the women away. The door represents the door that men have put before women. The door blocks the higher status’ and how men have hindered women from recieving these higher jobs. Lastly, the foot at the doorstep means that women are on the verge of breaking that barrier between the genders and that each gender is equal to the other… and yah =) that’s about it ^^
no youre all reading to deep, you cannot proove it’s about women from the poem
the mushrooms are a metaphor for the weak of society wether it be women the blacks or watever u want, but thats as far as you can take it, because know where in the poem does it mention women, all we know is its the minority rising
I think the poem is about sylvias vagina and how it is opening up an producing little baby foetus’s crawling out. When she says “widden the crannies” she is talking about how they rip her vagina to pieces. She says “even the paving. Our hammers, our rams” It is how they are kicking her uteris so much that it is becoming like a road and they are kicking her lady parts so much they are like power tools engulfing her old saggy vagina. That is what the poem means to me.
The poem to me seems like to be about mushrooms that aren’t noticed by people that they’re growing all over and soon will one day take over the world. But there are two verses that suggest People involved. And from what I’ve read above I might just agree about the women.
this poem is a load of rubbish to be frank. i understand the mushroom as an extended metaphor of her depression, and there are so many like her
The poem is about mushrooms and their growth,guys why do you always have to dig dip even if there is no need to do so.Feminism,foetus ...thats crap .Sylvia was just talking about mushrooms nothin more nothin less
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