Mushrooms

Mushrooms The focus point in Sylvia Plath's "Mushrooms" has to do with the Women Rights movement. Though reading the poem one would think it would simply be about mushrooms but Plath has incorporated poetic elements such as speaker, setting and situation, diction and tone as well as imagery. Plath uses mushrooms to represent women sprouting out of no where, as mushrooms do, and fight for Women Rights. By using diction and tone as well as five syllables a line to stress certain words it is clear what her message was; there is no stopping women as they multiple overnight. The setting of this poem is 1960 which automatically shows it is during a Women Rights Movement. Sylvia Plath was known by many other poets as the 'literary symbol of Women Rights Movement'. She believed in equality and was also known to be a very strong feminist. When reading this poem, after having details of Plath being the speaker, it made sense as to what she was saying. Throughout the poem she goes to say how mushrooms quietly come out overnight and nobody tries to stop this. "Our kind multiples, we shall by morning inherit the earth" also suggests a vengeance which brings it back to the main theme of a Women Rights Movement and not mushrooms (lines 30-32). Since Sylvia Plath was born during the movement it is clear as to why she uses such strong and stressed words. By using only five syllables a line it forces words to sound more sharp and harsh to get her powerful and inspiring message across. Certain words such as 'discreetly', 'betrays', 'hammers', 'voiceless', 'meek', 'multiply', and 'inherit', are the most important words she stresses. by using such words it creates a passion and desire to conform to the way the world was at the time and to stand up and fight. By using 'discreetly' in the first stanza it automatically sends a cocky message that no one is even aware of what these women at the time were doing and how they would not stand to be 'betrayed' anymore. Such words bring