Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 13-15
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
- Man, this revolt is getting a little more intense. The lady mushrooms have moved on from needles, and now they're poking through the sidewalk.
- The speaker finds yet another cool way to describe the caps of mushroom by comparing them to "hammers" and "rams." This description makes us think more about a revolution. We can just see these lady mushrooms streaming through the street, banging down doors, and raising a ruckus.
- Still, while the language evokes violent imagery, by using mushrooms as the central metaphor, it reminds us that this revolution is quiet.
- "Earless and eyeless" makes us think of how women during Plath's time were often expected to not hear or see anything men told them not to. Well, that's not entirely true—they were also often expected to not have thoughts of their own and only think what men told them to.