Krantz
English 271
Close reading of poetry

Questions on Plath

Mirror
1. Who or what is the speaker in the poem? What is the speaker complaining about? What does the speaker claim about itself?
2. How does the speaker change in the second stanza? What different qualities does the speaker have there?
3. Who are the young girl and the old woman in the second stanza?
4. What does the poet gain by the change of speaker? (I'm not sure of this myself.)
5. What is the message of this poem?

Daddy
1. What are the places alluded to in this poem? How might they be important to the overall meaning of the poem?
2. Why does the speaker think she might be a Jew? What does the allusion to Jews bring to mind? How does this fit in with the speaker's situation?
3. Why is the speaker afraid of her audience?
4. What is the allusion in the stanza lines 51-55 to a cleft in the chin?
5. Who or what is the model of "Daddy" that the speaker made in lines 64ff?
7. What does the speaker mean by "I'm finally through?"
8. Who are the two men the speaker has killed by the end of the poem?