Metaphors" is a very short poem from 1959. Plath announces that she is a riddle in nine syllables, and then uses a multitude of seemingly unrelated metaphors to describe herself. However, it is clear upon inspection that she is describing a state of pregnancy. The nine lines correspond to the nine months of pregnancy, and each line possesses nine syllables. Plath was pregnant with her first child, Frieda, at the time of the poem's composition