rephrase: In the poems "Mirror" and "Once Upon A Time" both personas are in situations which make them uncomfortable. In "Mirror", the woman is
uncomfortable with her appearance. She does not want to accept the fact that she is getting older. Meanwhile, in "Once Upon A Time", the father is uncomfortable with the pretentious society in which they live and wishes to return to the days of sincerity. The persona in "Mirror" is devastated and frustrated by her appearance in the mirror and tries to find alternate solutions to satisfy her desire to look younger. "Mirror" utilizes symbolism while "Once Upon A Time" utilizes similes to highlight how each persona deals with their uncomfortable situationsFirstly, in "Mirror", the woman is uncomfortable with her appearance. In lines 17-18, we are introduced to a woman who we later learn has a persistent issue with her appearance and is disturbed by the fact that she is aging. In the following lines, "In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises towards her day after day like a terrible fish," they express that the younger or more youthful appearance of the woman is fading and shows us the extent of the insecurity that lies within her. "Rises towards her...like a terrible fish" conveys to the reader the insecurities and self-consciousness of the woman that resurfaces every time she looks in the mirror, hence the analogy of the "terrible fish".
On the other hand, in "Once Upon A Time" the societal dynamic at the moment is different from the past. In the poem, the father is telling his son about the issues of today's society compared to what it was like when he was younger. The father's account described how they used to laugh with their hearts and eyes as opposed to now, where they only laugh with their teeth and emotionless eyes. He now laments those forgotten forms of expression, longing for what used to be: sincerity. Even worse, is the fact that the father has to learn how to mimic and mirror these pretentious traits and personalities in order to adjust to the behaviour of people today. However, this makes him uncomfortable because he wants his son to teach him sincerity all over again, not yet being influenced by society.
Secondly, the persona in "Mirror" is not satisfied with what she sees in the mirror. This is because the mirror shows her the truth and she finds it hard to believe that she is no longer youthful. "A woman bends over me searching my reaches for what she really is," tells us that the woman is searching for her younger, possibly more beautiful self which she cannot find because she is aging. So, she turns to alternative solutions to find something she no longer is: "then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon." Under the dim light of these alternatives, she seems to look younger, which is why the mirror calls them liars because they do not show her the truth of who she really is. The persona is also devastated and frustrated as seen in the following lines, "she rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands." This is because the persona refuses to accept the fact that she is no longer as young and beautiful as she once
was.
Thirdly, in "Mirror", the poet uses symbolism to portray how the woman deals with her uncomfortable
situation. The mirror symbolizes self-reflection, honesty and truth, revealing the persona's insecurities and aging process. Line 2, "whatever I see I swallow immediately," expresses the mirror's inability to suppress the truth. To the woman, this highlights every physical fault that she wishes to escape. It is because of what the mirror symbolizes, that causes her to seek alternative options or solutions to her plight. This, however, comes to no avail and so, in denial, she continues to search desperately in the mirror as revealed in the following lines, "in the morning, it is her face that replaces the darkness." This she does hoping to catch a glimmer of who she once was, but each time, she is unsuccessful.
In the final instance, the similes in "Once Upon A Time" reveal how the persona deals with the society that makes him uncomfortable by conforming. "I've learnt to wear many faces like dresses," allows us to interpret that similar to how people change clothes on a daily basis or depending on the occasion, he has learnt to hide his feelings and change his facial expressions based on the persons he interacts with or for the fitted occasion. Similarly, "my laugh in the mirror shows only my teeth like a snake's bare fangs," reveals his pretense and deception. Oftentimes, people who are known to lie and deceive are referred to as 'snakes'. Therefore, this simile indicates that though he laughs or smiles, that is not how he feels on the inside. Through hiding his emotions, he has ultimately become a product of his society, that which he despised and tried to avoid.