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READ THIS
The poem speaks of the power of myriads of mushrooms, if working in unison, to do the most amazing
things.
The poet describes them as being little fists or battering rams. They are meek, soft and gentle and yet
possess within their nature the power of steel.
Or is Sylvia Plath using the mushroom example to warn of the power of meek and bland people --
perhaps the workers -- when striving for a common goal?
ABOUT THE POET
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. She was an intelligent child who had her first
poem published when she was only eight. She displayed a marked degree of sensitivity but sought
perfection in all that she did.
Her father, a college professor and an expert on bees, died of an illness when Sylvia was still young. He
apparently thought it was cancer but in reality it was a curable form of diabetes. His untimely death
appears to have scarred the young child's sensitive mind.
She entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950 and, while there, wrote some 400 poems. During
her first year at the college, however, she attempted suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills.
She graduated from Smith College summa cum laude in 1955 and thereupon won a Fulbright
scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England. While there, she married the English poet, Ted
Hughes.
Their marriage would last a mere ten years before Sylvia found herself divorced. She was alone once
more, but now in a small London flat, poor and with two children to look after.
This was a foreign existence to one who had always been accustomed to the comforts of middle-class
America.
The winter of 1962-3 was one of the coldest, during which time the poet was continually ill with flu. She
learnt first hand much about the harshness of life. She nevertheless worked furiously in the very early
mornings while the children slept, producing a new poem virtually every day.
Towards the end of that winter -- in February 1963 -- she committed suicide by gassing herself in her
kitchen. She was then only 30 years of age.
She had not yet won the recognition she so richly deserved as a poet. Like so many great artists, fame
would follow only after her death.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers,
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door."
- Comment on the concept "we are meek" and "We shall by morning inherit the
earth". (4)
[Need help?]
Did you notice that this is a paraphrase of a quotation from Matthew's gospel (5:4): "Blessed are the
meek for they shall inherit the earth". The emphasis, of course, is on individual gentleness or softness
and yet there is the tremendous power in numbers. "Resistance is futile!" Who said that?
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- Why would the poet make reference to "shelves" and "tables"? (4)
[Need help?]
When I was a child and very young, most fairy stories included the use of mushrooms as shelves and
tables for the elves' banquets. Does the poet have this in mind: presenting the mushrooms in a
faerie-type world? Or does she have something else in mind?
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- Why are the mushrooms referred to as nudgers and shovers "in spite of
ourselves"? (2)
[Need help?]
Is it not the mushrooms' nature to nudge and shove. Each night they do it. Indeed, they can't help doing
it. It's what they were born to do. It's in their DNA.
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- What is the significance of the conclusion, "Our foot's in the door"? (4)
[Need help?]
One must, of course, see this statement in conjunction with the biblical paraphrase of the meek inheriting
the earth. But is the poet going beyond this meaning?
The poet had taken up residence in England during the mid-1950s, at a time when the country was awash
with worker unrest. One could imagine that the workers in their phenomenal numbers would have had
immense power had they chosen to use it in a united fashion.
The little mushrooms and the workers therefore had much in common. Both were regarded as
insignificant and yet, when united, they carried enough force to overturn the universe. And was it not Karl
Marx who cried out, "Workers of the world, unite!"?
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GENERAL QUESTIONS:
- Do you think that this poem paints a good picture of mushrooms? (4)
[Need help?]
When responding to a question like this, you need to be very broad in your answer, taking in every aspect
of the mushrooms as they are portrayed in this poem. You might for example mention the following:
- the poem mentions the amazing power of the mushrooms even though they are so soft;
- what about the shape of the mushrooms which look like fists of power;
- then, of course, their endless and frenetic activity every night;
- the fact that by their masses they overcome all obstacles;
- they are, of course, very white but so silent;
- and what about the fact that they appear as tables in so many fairy tales?
Can you find any other sound examples to substantiate this question?
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- Explain why the poet has used many short verses. (4)
[Need help?]
We hope you noticed that this is a picture poem where each verse itself represents a little button
mushroom. And so there are lots of really short verses that are meant to look like a clump of mushrooms.
The short verses also lend themselves to making the poem sound active or hectic. It's also like little sharp
jabs and punches from the gloved hand, or blows from the battering ram.
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