Mushrooms – Sylvia Plath

Overnight, 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.

The poem talks about the movement towards a change for the oppressed. It uses mushrooms to symbolize the oppressed and how they are left in the shadows and overlooked. In the third stanza it says “nobody sees us, stops us, betrays us; the small grains make room”, I think the poet is making the connection between how often our society overlooks certain people and their usefulness, just like how we overlook mushrooms and pass them by. In the ninth stanza it says “We are shelves, we are tables, we are meek, we are edible”, I think in this stanza the poet is making the direct connection to women’s traditional roles. Just like tables and shelves women are an essential part of society and are expected to hold everyone up but go unnoticed and taken for granted. The short story The Friday Everything Changed has these same thematic ideas about women’s traditional roles within society and how they can’t do all of the things men can. Finally In the sixth stanza it says “perfectly voiceless, widen the crannies, shoulder through holes”, I think the poet is talking about the movement towards change, and how those who are oppressed in our society are starting to take a stand and make changes for the better. This also connects to the thematic ideas in The Friday Everything Changed, when Alma asked the teacher why girls couldn’t take the water like the boys could and how it sparked Miss Ralston to take a step towards change to the society’s traditions and let the girls take the water too.