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As a poem written in free verse, “Mirror” doesn’t have a regular rhyme scheme. In fact, the reader would be hard-pressed to find any rhymes in the poem. If we consider the opening three lines, for instance, we need to strain our ears to hear anything close to rhyme:

     I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
     Whatever I see I swallow immediately
     Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

Admittedly, the examples highlighted in bold are partial rhymes at best. Yet the poem’s relative lack of rhyme is significant for the way it helps keeps the language smooth and unadorned. Just as a mirror reflects the world with an unflinching objectivity, the unrhymed lines of Plath’s poem avoid embellishment to evoke the objectivity of truth. Put differently, the lack of rhyme enables the speaker to reflect truth without poetry’s usual lyricism. Whereas more musical language might help make unsavory realities more palatable, Plath maintains a rigorous and prosaic impartiality.

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