Mirror Appearances Quotes

This line shows that the mirror tries not to be biased when judging appearances, which, for people, is a hard thing to do. The mirror says that love and dislike don't cloud the way that it views people or objects. For most people, love and dislike definitely affect how we see the world and ourselves, as we see in the woman's distress with her own appearance later in the poem.

The mirror's connection to the opposite wall shows that when we look at something long enough, appearances can become more that just physical. We internalize what we see – in the world, and in the mirror.

Here, the woman is looking at her appearance in the water, and the depths beyond, to find something deeper in herself. As we discovered with the mirror's connection to the wall, appearances are significant to our identities. But this woman is not satisfied with what she sees; appearances aren't enough for a complete, satisfying answer to what she is searching for – herself.