Metaphors by Sylvia Plath is a Riddle Poem

Plath's Light-hearted Intention is Flagged by Genre Choice

Sep 25, 2009

Sylvia Plath has signalled that her poem Metaphors should be read as a light-hearted take on pregnancy by choosing a playful riddle poem format and using its fun aspects.

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath has often been interpreted as Plath’s bitter resistance to pregnancy and the responsibilities it would bring – responsibilities that would tear her away from her career as a writer. Such appraisals fail to take into consideration the overall context of the work as an entertaining riddle poem , its essential jokiness, and the wonderful elaborate word games within the metaphors. Plath is at play with her readers, daring them to discover the layers of meaning piled on almost every word, including the title. Certainly, there are also insights into the experience of pregnancy and the paradox that the bearer of the child loses significance in the process and becomes a means to an end, a breeder. Nevertheless, it should be seen as a comment on the fate of women in general , rather than Plath beating her chest in anguish.

Riddle Poems – an Ancient Poetry Genre

When Plath opens the poem with “I am a riddle in nine syllables”, she is playing the “Who am I” game that is familiar to generations of children. So popular is this type of word puzzle that it was institutionalised into a poetry form at least a thousand years ago. Some of the earliest poems on record are riddle poems – written and enjoyed by Anglo-Saxons, Teutons and Vikings. Plath’s choice of genre lends a clue to how her poem should be interpreted. While it is plausible that Plath’s final twist of irony is to highlight her predicament by placing it in a normally happy context (much like the irony of a sad clown), there is far less to support this interpretation than most critics choose to find.

Metaphors as Play

The metaphor is a stock-in-trade poet’s tool. By saying that one thing is another, poets confront their readers with a startling image that brings home the truth. As well, it is within metaphors that allusions flourish, connotations that can strike the subconscious and carry layers of meaning. Plath is a strong user of the metaphor, and here she almost celebrates it. The metaphor becomes a plaything and a puzzle: the reader is invited to dig out as many meanings and references as possible. The riddle poem concept allows Plath to virtually say: “Guess what I mean by this.”

Plath squeezes every ounce out of her material. The riddle poem concept has been chosen as a reflection on the nature of reproduction: new life is often referred to as a mystery, the riddle of life. The poetic structure using nine lines has been called into play as part of the riddle, a rather obvious reference to the nine months of human gestation.

However, there is also a clever pun in the title which is not so easy to spot. Why did Plath call her poem Metaphors, rather than Riddle or some other obscure reference to pregnancy? Is it because, in language, a metaphor states that two things are one and the same when they obviously aren’t? This is the serious point that Sylvia Plath makes with her poem: the focus on the new child is so intense that mother and baby seem as one and the mother loses her identity to the child.

Is it likely that Plath was unaware of the etymology of the word “’Metaphor”? It icomes from the Greek “Meta” meaning “over, across or with” and ”phero “, meaning “I bear or carry”. Charles Hodgson at Podictionary adds the surprising detail that, in Greece, the word still carried its original meaning and Greek moving vans are labelled Metaphor! Thus, in a punning way, Plath spells out in the title that the poem is about expectant mothers “carrying the baby nine months” – a familiar term.

Thus, Plath signals by choice of genre, title and format that her poem is to be taken in a light-hearted manner. It is the poem is for all expectant mothers, not just her own. A thorough examination of the allusions adhering to every phrase in Metaphors will bear this out. Like any good poem, Metaphors carries as its goal an insight into the human condition. Nevertheless, the fun is in the journey on the way to the destination.

The copyright of the article Metaphors by Sylvia Plath is a Riddle Poem in American Poetry is owned by James Parsons. Permission to republish Metaphors by Sylvia Plath is a Riddle Poem in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.