"Metaphors"

After analyzing Sylvia Plath's poem, "Metaphors", it crossed my mind that the simplest poems can be more complicated to dig the true meaning from than the lengthiest poems ever crafted. The poem's title, "Metaphors",  is appropriate because each line contains a metaphor. This poem is intended to be a riddle, as stated in the first line, and it depicts Plath's feelings regarding her pregnancy.  She describes her state during her pregnancy through her use of imagery and other types of figures of speech. It is understood that she is not very happy with her pregnancy through her use of diction which has a negative connotation to it. It is apparent that she expresses a sort of melancholy towards the situation.  Her state of mind and feeling towards her pregnancy resonates from her own private life.  She lived on and off in state of depression, and had a very sad married life.  

In this first line, she makes a connection to the nine months of being pregnant as she states that every line will have "nine syllables" (Plath 717). In addition, there are nine lines to further demonstrate this idea. She hints out a collection of clues such as "elephant" and "house" which conjure images of things that are large and bulky as she is indeed when pregnant.  In the third line, she provides imagery of the size of her pregnant "mellon" like belly compared to her weak small "tendrill" like legs.  She brings up an allusion to "fruit of thy womb"when she mentions "red fruit" (Plath 717).  She then draws a line to Eve eating the apple in the garden of eden which brought suffering among all pregnant women.  The train Plath boards in the last line is the train of motherhood, and "theres no getting off" (Plath 717).