In the first line of the poem, the mirror says it is “silver and exact.” This can be interpreted many ways. Obviously it is describing what it looks like, but it is saying more than that. The color silver is reflective, and a mirror of course reflects what it sees. Exact, in this case could mean square, but it could also mean a lot more than that. A mirror shows you exactly what it sees; …showed first 75 words of 1107 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1107 total…sense of the word. The girl has grown into the woman, and she does not like it. A terrible fish is the last few words of this poem, and they sum up how this woman is feeling. She is getting old, and she is unhappy. She looks into this mirror-lake everyday hoping to see something better, but everyday it is the same thing, just an ugly fish that rises everyday to live, but nothing more.