Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors” was composed in 1959, during the time of post-World War II America. World War II gave women many opportunities to work jobs that took place outside of the home. Around this time, more and more women began to feel unsatisfied with simply completing tasks around the house. In an era where women were beginning to gain more freedom and power, but also were under pressure by the “baby boomers” to have a large family, Plath struggles with herself and her pregnancy. 

A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two unlike ideas in order to bring out the similarities of the ideas. After examining the metaphors and allusions in the poem “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath, it is made apparent that Plath deliberately wrote a nine-line poem, with each line consisting of nine syllables, telling the reader that the poem in its entirety, as well as the individual lines, is a metaphor for the pregnancy that she is enduring. Most of the metaphors Plath utilizes in her poem are negative, as she is coming to realize that she is not ready to give birth to a child in this time period.

Plath opens her poem by simply stating “I’m a riddle in nine syllables.” This is the first inclination that each of the nine lines in her poem are going to correspond to each of the nine months of pregnancy. By referring to herself as a riddle, a both literal and metaphorical meaning to the poem is set in place. Plath next compares herself to “an elephant, a ponderous house.” While in the second month of pregnancy, no woman would show noticeably to others, but Plath herself feels big and bloated, feeling as large as a house. By month three, she feels as though she is “a melon strolling on two tendrils,” her legs, tendrils, thin when compared to her swollen stomach, the melon. Even now, when she is just beginning to feel the effects of her pregnancy, she is unhappy with how she is feeling and appearing. All of her descriptions of herself are not positive ones. Despite the lack of her outward physical appearance showing her pregnancy, Plath is already feeling insecure. As her pregnancy progresses and she begins to show more outward signs, her insecurities will grow as well.

By month five, Plath is now correlating her unborn child with a loaf of bread, and her pregnant stomach with an oven. She notes how “this loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.” Just as a loaf of bread baking in the oven would rise with the aid of yeast, Plath feels as though her child is rapidly increasing in size in her stomach. During month six, Plath states how “money’s new minted in this fat purse.” This line is a metaphor describing herself as the purse and her child, still unborn, as the money inside. Here she is sharing how her belly is now very visible and “fat”, and her soon-to-be-born baby is now new inside of her. Here she describes her baby as the money, meaning that her child is the only thing that has any worth, as Plath is only the “purse” used to carry the “money” around. 

Now it is month seven, and Plath is viewing herself as “a means, a stage, a cow in calf.” She sees herself as simply a carrier for the child, and has no maternal feelings towards him or her. She is the stage, and her child has taken the center, both literally in her womb and figuratively in her life, and she now feels as though her only purpose is to give birth to this child. She thinks of herself as nothing more than a breeding cow, whose only purpose is to reproduce. In the final line, Plath realizes she has “boarded the train there’s no getting off.” Plath cannot avoid the process of birth any longer. Just as a train will not stop until it has reached its station, a woman will continue to play host to a child until it is time to give birth. No matter what, Plath knows this baby is coming. 

Along with all of the previous metaphors, there are two clear allusions to the bible that stand out in the poem. The fourth sentence reads “o red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!” The red fruit is a biblical allusion to Psalm 127:3, which reads “behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” While the allusion may reference the child as a reward, Plath is not ecstatic about her situation. This allusion to the bible may explain why Plath is enduring her pregnancy instead of looking for other options. If she is a religious woman, she would be against aborting the unborn baby. In addition to her potential religious convictions, during this time period, abortions were also illegal in the United States.  

The next allusion in Plath’s poem appears in line eight. At this point, Plath mentions how she has “eaten a bag of green apples”. This sentence is an allusion to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve enticed Adam to share with her the only fruit forbidden by God in the Garden of Eden. As punishment, God sentenced all women to pain in childbearing. The symbolism behind eating a whole bag of green apples is to signify the immense pain and suffering Plath is feeling as she approaches her due date. She is not ecstatic about this pain, as she does is not even sure if she is ready or wants to have a child. An additional meaning behind eating an entire bag of green apples may be that she must endure the pain of childbirth multiple times in her life. During this time period, the rise of the baby boomers, and the societal norm to have a large family means she will be expected to have multiple children.

Throughout the nine months of her pregnancy, overall Sylvia Plath is unsatisfied and feels invaluable. Plath was living in a time period where most women believed that the role of a female was to be a mother and have children, but there were a few women who were reluctant to return to their roles in the home after World War II. Plath is unhappy with the situation, and struggles to accept that she must align with the social norms of the 1950’s and 1960’s and become a mother. Throughout the poem, metaphors and allusions are prevalent and used to justify and express her unwieldiness towards her pregnancy and unborn child. 
