The Companionable Ills
The Companionable Ills - meaning Summary
Flaws Become Familiar Companions
Plath's short poem observes how personal and spiritual faults shift from corrective pain into familiar traits. Initially experienced as God’s spurs to rouse the spirit from stagnation, these imperfections are slowly tolerated and even strangely comforting. The speaker traces a movement from irritation to wry acceptance, suggesting that mistakes and flaws can settle into identity as steady, companionable presences rather than sources of only shame.
Read Complete AnalysesThe nose-end that twitches, the old imperfections--- Tolerable now as moles on the face Put up with until chagrin gives place To a wry complaisance--- Dug in first as God's spurs To start the spirit out of the mud It stabled in; long-used, became well-loved Bedfellows of the spirit's debauch, fond masters.
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