St.

Anne’s 2020

Cinderella

The prince leans to the girl in scarlet heels, (A)

Her green eyes slant, hair flaring in a fan (B)
Of silver as the rondo slows; now reels (A)
Begin on tilted violins to span (B)

The whole revolving tall glass palace hall

Where guests slide gliding into light like wine;
Rose candles flicker on the lilac wall
Reflecting in a million flagons' shine,

And glided couples all in whirling trance

Follow holiday revel begun long since,
Until near twelve the strange girl all at once
Guilt-stricken halts, pales, clings to the prince

As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk

She hears the caustic ticking of the clock.

Sylvia Plath

Rondo: a term used to describe structure in music with a recurring main theme.
Flagons: a large container in which a drink is served
Caustic: a chemical able to burn or corrode organic tissue
St. Anne’s 2020

Notes on the poem

Plath's perfect love story has all the settings of a romantic ball, until the clock strikes
twelve. She realizes that this romantic setting is just a desire to return to her youth.

Analysis
"Cinderella" is a short poem written by Sylvia Plath while she was in college

• In the first ten lines, we see a swirling welter of social activity. It's all music and
romance and glimpses -- it's all fluid and in movement -- leaning, slanting, flaring,
slowing, reeling, tilting, revolving, sliding gliding, flickering, shining, whirling --
everything's in flow, everything's indistinct. The key word is "trance" -- how
sometimes at a party, you can be totally in the trance of the moment -- the talk and
the music and the flirtation and the romance ...

Then in the last four lines, we'll see that kind of buzz suddenly vanish for the girl.
Who knows why -- but it abandons her -- and she finds herself at the end of the
evening, pale, guilt-stricken, clinging to the guy she's with, with "hectic music" and
shallow talk all around her ...suddenly aware of time, time she's wasting time.

• Tone: shows fear of loss, loss of hope, loss of youth, and eventually loss of life. She
has hope when the Prince leans to her. She hopes to remain young and in love. But
then, the ticking of the clock reminds her that this love is only fleeting.In the story,
Cinderella, the beautiful gown, and everything all ended at midnight. The clock
striking midnight will end the life that Cinderella has created for herself.

The poem has two different tones in the beginning the poem is romantic and calm
but more towards the end the poem gets a darker almost haunting tone. Plath
creates a romantic, happy and a fairly tale like feeling. But Plath also creates a
haunting and loss of hope feeling in the end of poem.

• Mood: The poem, "Cinderella", has a mood of a trance, being caught up in a great
time or mood, and then being struck with reality and sudden guilt.
St. Anne’s 2020

This mood is created by many verbs describing the scene, the verbs that contributes
to such a good mood. Verbs such as flaring, twirling, revolving, whirling, gliding etc...
all referring to the dances, and the movement of people at the party. In the last four
lines, the woman in the poem (Cinderella), is suddenly struck by reality, and then by
guilt. "Until near twelve the strange girl all at once/Guilt-stricken halts, pales, clings
to the prince/As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk/She hears the caustic ticking
of the clock.".

• Images: The imagery is very bold, Sylvia Path wanted you to imagine every detail
from the lilac walls to Cinderella's shoes.

Plath uses colour to set the scene. She describes "scarlet heels," "green eyes," and
"silver" to entrance the reader into the setting. She paints a picture of beauty and
light when describing "rose candles" and a "lilac wall." Plath creates a pleasant
auditory image amid the "music" and "cocktail talk."But in the midst of all the beauty,
Plath sets a haunting tone of sadness and desperation using the same imagery
devices. Cinderella's expression "pales" and becomes "guilt stricken." The clock
begins to chime caustically, as if ticking away the time for Cinderella.

• Structure: The poem has the structure of a sonnet. It has three quatrain followed by
a couplet. The rhyme scheme ABAB

• Theme : This poem portrays the perfect love story. It also explores the themes of
time, hope and despair.

• A conceit is a kind of metaphor that compares two very unlike things in a surprising
and clever way. The conceit of the story is the time she has. The main idea is the
clock and how she only has a limited time at the ball before she turns into her old self
. The poem reveals that she knows she only has so much time with the prince. "Until
near twelve the strange girl all at once"and "She hears the caustic ticking of the
clock". She will never get back this time, this time to be happy and spend time with
the prince.

• Perspective: She puts Cinderella in third person so we can see Cinderella ,and what
she is experiencing at the ball.

• Symbolism: the clock

St. Anne’s 2020

Questions

1. What is the widely popular story behind the title of the poem?
2. Why do you think Plath wrote this poem? What meaning does she want to share?
3. What is the setting of the poem? (The world of the poem)
4. How does the poem shift from person to person or from different times and places?
5. In the first line the atmosphere is set, it is one of sophistication and romance. What
words suggest this?
6. What literary device is used in line two (‘r’)?
7. What literary device is used in line four(‘i’)?
8. Which lines in the first and second stanza demonstrates the technique of simile?
9. Which letter repeated creates assonance in stanza two?
10. In the fourth line the loquacious ‘l’ sound demonstrates which poetic technique?
Consonance or assonance? Give a definition of your chosen term and use the example
from the poem.
11. What is the rhyming pattern for each stanza?
12. What is a sonnet? Does this poem have any features of a sonnet?
13. What sounds and colours are referred to thought this poem?