I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.
The unsettling nature of “Metaphors” (The Colossus, William
Heinemann Limited, 1960)arises from the dichotomy of Plath’s tone and the
images she chooses to convey her mentality. Initially, she playfully compares
her pregnant state to an “elephant,” a “house,” a ripening “melon,” and a
“yeasty” loaf of bread. However, starting with the sixth line, it becomes clear
that beneath these pithy musings run the undercurrents of anxiety. Plath begins
to see herself merely as a “means”—almost an incubator, with no other worth
besides that of birthing offspring. This culminates with the last line, where
she realizes that she is forever changed, irrevocably. Her pregnancy was only
the beginning of the train-ride; she must now become a mother.