Mushrooms

By 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.

This poem as well as the short story “The Friday Everything Changed” share the same theme. The two pieces of literature can be perceived to be about feminism. The mushrooms described in the story symbolize women. The line “Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies,” represents the lack of power, their inability to speak out, but the latter part of the line represents how they continue to fight. They go where they can and continue to slowly make progress. “We are shelves, we are tables, we are meek, we are edible,” is related to the what a women needed to be during that time period. Women were to clean the house and take care of family. To be a good wife was to be useful like a shelf or table. The last ending lines, ” We shall by morning inherit the earth.Our foot’s in the door.” tells of how in they end they will succeed. In this case, society is trying to shut them out. This is represented by the door. Having a foot in the door means they’ve already started and they’ve fought for the opportunity to ram through.