Sylvia Plath - "mushrooms"

AMERICAN POETRY I

SYLVIA PLATH        

Mushrooms

“Mushrooms” is a poem written by the American poet Sylvia Plath. She is well-known as one of the most important poets of confessional poetry. This poem was written on November 13, 1959 and first published in 1960 in her poetry collection: The Colossus and Other Poems.

The poem talks about little mushrooms growing up quietly in a forest. The little mushrooms expect to be all grown up by the morning. If we take a deeper look, we can see that the whole poem is an extended metaphor. The mushrooms seem to represent a big population, maybe they are in times of war or they are oppressed by some other society class; what this poem wants to convey is that every little voice counts and all together can make a big difference.

The main theme in the poem is the role of women in society and feminism. At the same time, it could represent freedom and perseverance. In the 9th stanza, the author makes reference to women treated by men as domestic objects:

“We are shelves, we are

Tables,”

The poem also pictures the moment of birth as it is said in some images throughout the stanzas: “Take hold on the loam”.  Loam is a fertile soil.

The speaker is someone representing the “mushroom” population. It could be some kind of a spokesperson or we can give it another sense and interpret the poem as if it has more than one speaker. The author uses the pronouns “we”, “our” and “us” (lines 7, 8, 14, etc.). There’s nothing in the poem like “I” or “me”. Instead of it, the poem is narrated by an amount of little voices that are quietly starting a revolution.

Regarding meter, “Mushrooms” is a very well structured poem. Although this structure is not established, all the stanzas follow the same path: Eleven stanzas that have three lines and each line have five syllables exactly. Sylvia Plath does not make use of a specific rhyme scheme in this poem; it is written in free verse. Besides that, she makes a wonderful job using alliteration and assonance. A great example of alliteration is: “Soft fists insist” and assonance is spotted here: “very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly”. The repetition of the V sound in the word “very” is also alliteration. With no doubt it causes the reader to read it in a softer way, slowly but continuously. Plath uses consonance as well. For example, the T sound in “Overnight”, “Whitely”, “discreetly” and “quietly” and in the 10th stanza: “Nudgers and shovers”.

Regarding diction, the poem is written in a colloquial and natural speech and it includes the necessary words to create the atmosphere of a field full of mushrooms (women or another group of people) that are quietly growing (starting a revolution). The most noticeable poetic device in this poem is personification. The speaker endows the mushrooms with human characteristics. More specifically, they are personified as women. This statement is supported by the fertility of the mushrooms and how they are compared with furniture (tables, shelves).