Sylvia Plath

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Student Question

What does the line "A creel of eels, all ripples" mean in Plath's poem "You're"?

Quick answer:

"A creel of eels, all ripples" is a metaphor meant to describe the sensation of a wriggling baby inside of the womb.

Expert Answers

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In 1960, Sylvia Plath wrote this short poem to describe her feelings towards being pregnant for the first time. She had a complicated relationship with the notion of pregnancy. Sylvia Plath was afraid of the pain and dangers of childbirth. At the same time, she considered pregnancy and giving birth to be essential parts of being a woman. Throughout the two stanzas of this eighteen-line poem, the speaker describes her feelings towards pregnancy by using metaphors to illustrate what it means to her and how it feels.

There are numerous instances of marine imagery in this poem. A creel (a wicker basket) full of wriggling eels is meant to describe her feelings of her baby moving inside of the womb. As her baby grows and wriggles inside of her, the speaker uses the metaphor of a basket of live eels to describe this particular sensation of pregnancy. It is something that even somebody who has never experienced pregnancy can imagine.

Plath also uses a particular poetic device here. The words creel and eel falling close together is one example of assonance in the poem. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in close proximity to each other. In fact, eight of this poem's eighteen lines contain assonance. This serves to highlight this metaphor even more.

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