Engl103 which ‘ has ten syllables with alternating stresses ’ Consequently , this ultimately works to outline the meaning of the poem and overall mood and conclusion of the text . Notably , this metaphorically implies that time is a prison cell ; there is absolutely no escaping the final sentence , which is death ; this interpretation is also highlighted by the dynamic verb ‘ drains ’, which suggests that it is a slow , painful drag to wait for death to come . The metaphor of ‘ the milk of the stars ’ uses white colour imagery in order to promote an idea of purity among the innocence and beauty of the stars . However , this also reinforces the sorrowful tone Plath is creating , because even the stars , typically characterised by magical properties , cannot escape the cruel passing of time and inevitable death . Like everyone and everything , they will eventually burn out . Additionally , Plath is constructing an ideology of the inevitability of death through the use of parallelism ; she does this by describing how the reader could ‘ cry for the pagan girl left picking olives ’ while the flagon is ‘ Raised to toast a thousand kings ’. This indicates that it is not significant what life you lived - whether you were ‘ the pagan girl ’ or the ‘ thousand kings ’; everybody meets the same end . This interpretation can be derived from the connotations of Paganism ; although this is a religion which is typically not feared or criminalised in the twenty-first century , with the context of the year of publication of this poem in mind a ‘ pagan girl ’ would have likely been considered a sinner or a ‘ devil child ’. Contrastingly , however , the collectivity of ‘ a thousand kings ’ juxtaposes the definite article of ‘ the pagan girl ’ in order to depict her as a minority and the kings in a position of power , insinuated by the dynamic verb ‘ toast ’ and its connotations of wealth and celebration . Consequently , this juxtaposition between the construction of opposing characters implies that time simply does not discriminate , as ‘ for all gives // Sorrow ’. The collective noun ‘ all ’ is significant in reinforcing this idea , consequently personifying time as an enemy , a machine of endless
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