As George Eliot once said, "All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation." In Sylvia Plath's poem, "Metaphors", she gives metaphors that can be interpreted many different ways depending on the person. When other people's opinions of the poem differ from my interpretations of the poem, people think that it speaks about the school year and how people have struggle throughout the year, while some along with myself thought it was speaking of the cycle of pregnancy. Plath's poem gives a lot of metaphors and allusions that describe the path a woman goes through when she is pregnant. 

In the first line of Plath's poem, she speaks of the time frame a woman is pregnant for and the struggles that come along with it. "I'm a riddle " which tells the reader that she needs to be figured out and analyzed like a riddle. The " nine syllables" is really talking about the 9 months that a woman carries a child. Others think the riddle is referring to the struggle of the difficulty of school work and the other hurdles others have during a school year. The nine syllables are also speaking about the duration in which a school year lasts. 

The next line is the kicker for the pregnancy argument because it describes this thing as "An elephant " which is telling the reader that the women is gaining weight and walks heavy like a large animal. The " ponderous home" describes her as describes the clumsiness of her home because she is pregnant and can not get all of her work done. The only way you can relate this to school is to say that the school is large and the halls are filled with people who are clumsy. The proof for the pregnancy interpretation seems to be stronger for this line. 

"A melon strolling " refers to the woman's large stomach that is shaped like a melon. The " two tendrils" are her legs that are skinny appendages that support her large melon-like stomach. If someone were to interpret this as a school then they would say that the melon is the large student body that are supported by two tendrils, being the dean and the principal. A women shaped like a melon would be the better answer considering that a school and a student body shaped like a melon doesn't make much since. 

"O red fruit..." indicates her off spring and how the skins red and new to this world. The "ivory" that she is alluding to her purity and how she was once a virgin and so innocent. Lastly the word "timber" alludes to the wood like crucifixion because she killed all of her time and now has to devote all of it to her new child. Some people say that the "red fruit" is an apple because teachers are always known for having apples on there desk. The "ivory" would be the innocence of the kids that are in school and their minds can be molded to believing whatever they are taught. 

The belly of the mother is compared to "This loaf's big " or bread that is " yeasty rising." This line speaks about how a mother's belly gets bigger and rises like yeast in bread because she is getting closer to labor. When a person is making bread the yeast in the bread rises so that someone knows that the bread is almost done. The bread being almost done is an allusion for the mother about to go into labor. When a school become larger, people in the student body rise up and become good leaders.

Like a " fat purse" the women is carrying something valuable, for instance like purse can hold gold, diamonds, or money; a women carries a baby which is also high in value according to Plath. Plath is only referring to herself as the purse because all she is doing is carrying the baby, she cherishes it, and would do anything to protect the child. The " fat purse" can also be like a school full of "new- minted" minds. The minds of children at the school are delicate and need to be protected like a child in a woman's womb. 

The woman feels like she is a "means" for someone else in other words she is just there to carry the baby. She is a "stage" which is telling the reader that she does not think that her body is her own. The "calf" is an idiom that's shows the reader that she is carrying a baby like a cow carries a calf. A school is a "means" for people to learn and become better student. The stage is where the student preforms and go from being a "calf" or a child to a full grown "cow" or adult. 

She talks about how she has "eaten a bag of green apples" which can be interpreted as a reference to Adam and Eve. The desire/temptation to do the wrong thing is great because she has had to carry a child for nine months and has not been able to do a lot of activities that she is used to doing. A child is tempted during school to do the wrong thing because school is long and strenuous. Children have trouble concentrating for a long period of time so they "eat a bag of green apples" which alludes to them making the wrong decision in class and they become disruptive. 

When a woman is pregnant she has "Boarded the train " of pregnancy and she needs to understand that " there's no getting off." In the last line of the poem Plath tells the reader that she has become pregnant and she needs to stick with it and go through with the decision she has made. Once a person is in school, they need to stick with it because they reach a certain point in school where a person needs to stick with it because the ending result will be so great once you have your job. 

Plath's poem can be interpreted many different ways, such as a cycle of pregnancy or a person's life during school. The metaphors used in Plath's poem clearly tell the reader about pregnancy because when she was writing the poem, she was pregnant. The poem can be interpreted many different ways but Plath only meant it in one way. 

