Mirror

1) My initial experience reading the poem was simply that I really enjoyed it. It was pretty simple and easy to understand. The only thing that was difficult for me at first was understanding the theme. There were a lot of things that the poem could imply and there were many meanings you could put on it. It wasn't until I read it a second time and completed a TP-CASTT analysis that I could understand the theme. I decided that the theme was accepting yourself as you grow older. The woman struggled with losing her beauty as she got older. After this analysis, my view on the poem shifted completely. The first time around I got the impression that the woman was just looking in any old mirror and watching herself grow old. But after reading it a second time, I realized that this poem is about life in general. While out on the streets, you see yourself in car windows or store windows and see what you look like daily. You literally watch yourself age as the days go by. I also found it interesting that the focus was on a woman. Women in society are usually the more prominent ones that suffer from insecurities. I just altogether really enjoyed this poem because I thought it was very relatable. 

2) When answering questions, I really had trouble analyzing what the poet was implying within certain words/phrases. The easier questions for me were those about structure. It was easy to analyze shifts and breaks than it was to analyze the meaning of certain parts of the poem. Some questions I feel like I need more help with would be those understanding the meaning of words.