Prompt: Mirrors

Venus at the Mirror

Mirrors often show up in poetry in symbolic roles, as self-knowledge, distortion, doubles, and thresholds. Let's look at some varied approaches to the mirror in poetry.

"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath is probably the most famous “mirror poem.” The mirror speaks here in a cold, objective voice: “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” It becomes a symbol of unyielding truth, especially as a woman ages and confronts her changing identity. The mirror is not comforting; it is brutally honest, almost inhuman. 

In "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" by Anne Sexton, she rewrites the fairy tale, focusing on the mirror as an instrument of patriarchal judgment and female self-surveillance.

An early example is "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The lady of the poem lives under a curse and can only see the world through a mirror, never directly.  Today, we might call this mediated reality. When she turns away from it to look directly, her world collapses. This poem explores the danger of moving from **illusion into reality**, and the cost of authentic experience. 

I have always loved the mirror as a portal or threshold in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. Okay, it is prose, but Lewis Carroll embedded poems in the book. He treats the mirror as a passage into an inverted world. That is a classic metaphor for crossing into the unconscious or the surreal. 

What we see when we look in a mirror might be an uncanny double. "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa is set at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is a reflective black surface. The speaker sees his own face merge with the names of the dead. That mix - “I’m stone. I’m flesh” mixes past and present, self and ghost.  

Send us a poem that uses mirrors in some symbolic way. 

Submission Deadline: June 30, 2026

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Oldest English Poem Discovered

Memorial to Caedmon at St. Mary's Churchyard. The inscription reads,
"To the glory of God and in memory of Caedmon, the father of English Sacred Song.
Fell asleep hard by, 680" Photo: Rich Tea, CC BY-SA 2.0

Researchers leafing through a ninth-century manuscript have discovered a copy of the earliest surviving English poem, according to a recently published study. Known as “Caedmon’s Hymn,” the short verse is considered to be a foundational text in English literature. 

Purportedly composed by an illiterate cowherd after experiencing a religious vision, the nine-line verse references heaven and praises God for creation. The poem is known for its inclusion in some versions of the medieval “Ecclesiastical History of the English People,” written by the monk Bede the Venerable, which was reproduced about 200 times. 

Now let us praise Heaven-Kingdom's guardian,

the Maker's might and his mind's thoughts,

the work of the glory-father—of every wonder,

eternal Lord. He established a beginning.

He first shaped for men's sons

Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator;

then middle-earth mankind's guardian,

eternal Lord, afterwards prepared

the earth for men, the Lord almighty.

The Old English version reads:

Nu scilun herga hefenricæs uard

metudæs mehti and his modgithanc

uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuæs

eci dryctin or astelidæ.

he ærist scop ældu barnum

hefen to hrofæ halig sceppend

tha middingard moncynnæs uard

eci dryctin æfter tiadæ

firum foldu frea allmehtig

Cædmon (657–684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. This Northumbrian cowherd cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of Hilda. He was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but, according to the 8th-century Christian historian and saint Bede, learned to compose one night in a dream. He later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational Christian poet.

While two older copies of the poem have surfaced, they were both written in Latin. The recent discovery was written in Old English and embedded in the main Latin text, suggesting English poetry was valued by Latin readers much earlier than previously thought.

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That Poetic Voice We Sometimes Use

The premise of a New York Times piece titled "What's With That Voice People Use When Reciting Poetry?" is that there’s a distinctive, stylized way many poets read their work aloud.

This is often called “Poet Voice,” and the article digs into what it is and why it’s so common. If you attend poetry readings and if you yourself read poetry aloud, you probably have encountered this Poet Voice.

It can be a slow cadence, with dramatic pauses, a lilting or monotone delivery, or a sing-songy inflection. It is not that person's natural speaking voice. Poet Voice is not meant as a compliment.  

On the page, poetry is quiet, private, and intimate. There is some "voice" in our head when we read silently. Is that the voice we use when we read aloud?

Do you hear this different way of reading as comforting and familiar, or as awkward?

We know there are poets who turn reading into a performance rather than language meant to connect.

Poets aren’t generally "performers," but still can fall into this same vocal pattern.

That article isn’t arguing for or against Poet Voice. It’s asking: what is this “weird poetic monotone rhythmic thing,” why does it persist, and how does voice change what a poem means when it moves from page to performance. The general takeaway from the article is that Poet Voice isn’t tied to one generation or school of poetry. It shows up at “the open mic and the Pulitzer podium alike,” and many poets admit they dislike it even while using it.

Here are a few poets who get mentioned as examples of “Poet Voice,” either in the *NYT* piece’s broader conversation or in the related analysis it draws on:

Louise Glück reads her poem "The Wild Iris." The Nobel laureate’s readings are frequently described as having that “precious, lilting cadence” with down-slurring line endings

Robert Bly is a poet who certainly reads his poem in an interesting way. I've heard him at reading read the same poem several times in a row, as if he thought we missed something the first time. Bly’s readings are faster, more emphatic, and less singsong. It's unusual but probably not what is meant as Poet Voice.

Robert Pinsky also has a distinctive way of reading. Is it Poet Voice? Here he reads "The Forgetting."

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Only Rhyme with Nicholson Baker

I just finished listening to Nicholson Baker’s 2009 novel, The Anthologist. It is a meta-fictional exploration of the creative process and really gets into the technicalities of poetry, particularly rhyme. 

The protagonist, Paul Chowder, is a poet. Baker has said in interviews that while he isn't a poet himself, he shares Chowder’s obsession with rhyme and meter. Through Chowder, Baker delivers highly technical "lectures" on the 4-beat line, the history of iambic pentameter, and how these things are used by certain poets. Paul is a middle-aged, moderately successful poet tasked with writing the introduction to a new poetry anthology titled Only Rhyme. But he is stalled by procrastination. He has selected the poems, but he cannot seem to write a single word of the introduction.

His struggle is mixed with his personal life. His long-term girlfriend, Roz, has recently moved out because she is tired of his inability to move forward with his work and his life.

Poets should enjoy his deep dives into the lives and techniques of poets like John Dryden, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Louise Bogan, and Elizabeth Bishop. He treats these historical figures like personal friends or neighbors. 

I'm not a big fan of rhyme in modern poetry, but I liked the lessons and anecdotes about poets. His introduction becomes a meditation on how we use art to make sense of our failures and our loves.

After I finished the book, I stumbled on "Endymion" by John Keats and took a closer look than usual at the rhyme.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Its loveliness increases,
it will never pass into nothingness
but still will keep a bower quiet for us

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made of our searching; yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

The rhyme still doesn't work for me the way it does for Paul Chowder or Keats.

I have read almost all of Baker's books. Here are 4 that I enjoyed. 

The Fermata (1994) is my favorite of his novels. A provocative and controversial story that blends magical realism with erotica. It follows a man who can stop time by snapping his fingers (a move he calls "The Fold"). While time is frozen, he moves through the world unobserved, and spends part of his stopped time (Can you spend stopped time?) doing what any adolescent male would do with that power - though the protagonist is an adult - and that's why the book is frequently debated for its "ethical implications" and its "voyeuristic" premise. One reviewer called it a "X-rated sci-fi fantasy," which will either intrigue you or turn you off.

U and I is non-fiction about Baker's obsession with John Updike, though he hasn't met him. I am a big fan of Updike's writing, so I could identify.

The Mezzanine (1988) was Baker’s debut and is known for its hyper-focus on the mundane details of daily life. The entire novel takes place during a single lunch hour as the narrator, Howie, buys a pair of shoelaces and returns to his office via an escalator. It has Baker’s signature style of minute observations (here, footnotes) —such as the mechanics of a straw, the design of a paper-towel dispenser, or the philosophy of office etiquette. I know it doesn't sound like a page-turner but it will surprise you.

Vox (1992) was a commercial success. That might be surprising as it consists entirely of a single phone conversation between two strangers on a pay-per-minute erotic chat line. It was a New York Times bestseller and gained some notoriety when it was revealed that Monica Lewinsky had given a copy to President Bill Clinton. But more importantly, it shows mastery of dialogue and human connection through technology decades before AI was all the buzz.

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To see our past prompts and more than 300 issues,
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