Mushrooms
Mushrooms - context Summary
Published 1960 in Colossus
Written amid Sylvia Plath's Cambridge years and published in 1960 in The Colossus and Other Poems, "Mushrooms" reflects her recurring interest in nature and transformation. The poem gives voice to a quiet, collective growth—humble fungi gradually claiming space—suggesting themes of unnoticed persistence, social emergence, and eventual takeover. Its domestic, patient imagery links natural processes to broader ideas of change and empowerment in Plath's early work.
Read Complete AnalysesOvernight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us! 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.
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