A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Contradictory to social norms of 1959, Sylvia Plath expresses a concern for her unavoidable role as a mother through her use of punctuation and metaphors. The nine syllables and the nine lines implies the nine months of pregnancy. Each line showing her feelings throughout each month of her confinement.  

Sylvia Plath uses familiar objects so the reader can picture the hidden messages in her poem. Familiar being the word because becoming a mother, one would expect to be learning many new things along this journey. Sticking to these familiar words that a pregnant woman would come across while preparing for the newborn's arrival.  In the second line "An elephant, a ponderous house." (Plath 48) the woman is expressing the thoughts of her body. A new image when Plath uses the words melon and tendrils to put an emphasis on the sarcastic tone of what the pregnant woman dislikes about her body. That her pregnant body is large and looks abnormal to her usual and comfortable body weight and shape. The fifth line is describing the baby growing inside the woman like bread in an oven. The yeast baking until the timer say its done and grows inside of her with time because she is the baker in of this metaphor. "Money's new, minted in this fat purse." (Plath 48) in the sixth line it relates to around the sixth month of pregnancy. More than half way through the nine months and the bills are adding up with this new child approaching. The woman is scared of the big chunk of money coming out of her own account. Money being a huge value but described in a purse relates to the baby being a big deal as well.  In the seventh line, "I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf" says that a play and calf are celebrated not the stage or cow. Sylvia Plath is explaining how the pregnant woman is now responsible for not only she but now a child and the child will be the main focus of her new life as a mother. A mother who will be needed in multiple ways because it is of her own flesh. All of these bearings that come with being a mother, the woman is not exactly happy about having a baby. Plath rather is making the pregnant woman seem to be just accepting the consequences to a possible mistake she made months ago.

The punctuation in the poem gives a true hint of what the woman is really feeling. Plath ends most lines with periods or a comma to tell her true feelings. Feelings that she is not ready for this baby to come, and she might never be ready. When using an exclamation mark in the fourth line Sylvia Plath insinuates sarcasm. The line says "O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!"(Plath 48), meaning the pregnant woman should be thinking this baby is the greatest thing on earth. In a farmers world red fruit is the indicator that tells the farmer the fruit is ready. The word red in this line though, gives the impression that the woman is ready and happy for this baby to come into her life. In reality, the woman is not happy but afraid and unsure of how she will handle having a baby that was so unexpected in this time of her life.  Ivory is usually referred to as white, pure, or to the hard tusk used for carving fine art and jewelry. In line four, that is supposedly how the pregnant woman should feeling about the baby growing inside of her. That the word ivory is supposed to be describing how valuable the baby is supposed to be to her but Plath gives it a sarcastic tone by using that exclamation mark at the end of the line than the periods. 

The irony of this poem is that the pregnant woman is supposed to be all excited and happy as would a lady in 1959 would be but really is scared and overwhelmed. In reality the birth of a child is supposed to be planned but there are indicators that tell the readers that this woman is not prepared for motherhood. Which contradicts the theme of being pregnant. A mother should put her child before herself but this whole poem is solemnly about the struggle for this reluctant woman. Plath shows the resisted concept of the mother to become a means to an end. In line eight it tells the readers that as time is getting closer to end of this delay the more the idea of being a mother alarms the pregnant woman. Plath says "I've eaten a bag of green apples." (Plath 48) meaning that the woman is not even close to being ready to have this child. All of the necessities a mother is supposed to have prepared ahead of time is still not ripe. The last line "Boarded the train there's no getting off." (Plath 48) states that it is too late to turn back now. A pregnant woman making it to her ninth month of pregnancy, there is nowhere to run now that she has gone this far. Stepping on a train and when the doors close the moving train will not stop just because one person wants it to. No the train will keep moving until it has arrived at its final destination which in this metaphor is birth.  Still not happy as pregnant woman should be but excepting the fact that she will be having this baby and she is responsible for her and her baby's lives.

This riddle first has the reader's minds spinning on the idea of a pregnant woman. The hidden message in the nine lines is that the pregnant female is concerned about being the role of a mother. Throughout the nine lines or one could say months the pregnant woman is pondering over a new concern instead of being excited to bring a child into her life and wanting to share her values with it.  The matter of being pregnant is thought of being cute and joyful for this new era in someone's life, but the poem contradicts its theme by the mother's worry of the inescapable role of a caretaker by Sylvia Plath's use of punctuation and metaphors. 
