Piatt's 'The Witch in the Glass': Innocence and Maternal Love

Publication History and Critical Reception. Piatt’s tender side shows to best advantage in this poem, whose later history identifies it among her most popular work. Seventeen years after its original publication in 1880, “Witch” had the dubious honor of being plagiarized by Dorothea Moore in “Precocity,” published in an avant-garde periodical called the Chap-Book. Even more telling, the editor of a rival magazine remembered Piatt’s poem well enough to call Moore to account for her theft. More recently (2004), the poem makes a rather bewitching appearance, this time properly credited, in a romance novel, Loving Jesse. That an author writing today could find inspiration in the poem speaks to the kind of “freshness” that, as William Spengemann says, distinguishes Piatt’s work, allowing her poems to “remain alive in ways that those of her far more famous contemporaries simply do not” (xiii).

Form and Narrative Structure. One of Piatt’s shortest poems, “Witch” is divided into two stanzas, the first spoken by a young girl, the second by her wary but resigned mother. Using an utmost economy of means, Piatt captures that moment in a girl child’s life when she begins the transition to adult sexuality, her innocence still intact, but now at risk as she dreams of the life she will lead as a young woman. The imagery that Piatt employs in the first stanza—the mirror, the witch, and the “red, red mouth” of the child speaker, who seeks “the very thing [she] should not know”—could not be more spare. But insofar as these images are taken from fairy tales—most obviously “Snow White,” but also “Rapunzel,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and the rest—they do double duty. Not only do they suggest the girl’s still-lingering innocence (all she knows of love and sex is fairy tale romance), but they also remind us that sexual maturation is part of growing up.

Maternal Acceptance and Ironic Tone. In the second stanza the mother acknowledges the fact that her daughter is maturing and accepts her helplessness to prevent it, aware that even if all the mirrors in the world were covered, sooner or later “a bird,” a “wistful wind,” or “a rose,” sent “by some hapless boy,” will whisper low / The very thing [her daughter] should not know.” If little girls dream their lives away reading fairy tales, just as in fairy tales, innocence will be lost no matter how hard parents work to prevent it. The conclusion is ironic, but the irony is gentle and the tone is a perfect blend of wistfulness and acceptance that speaks directly of a mother’s love.

For Discussion or Writing.
1. Think about the girl’s relation to images from fairy tales. Which fairy tales or other children’s stories had the greatest influence on you when you were growing up? Why?

2. Look up the word witch. Why does the poem use this word for the girl’s image, rather than something like princess? Or is the “witch in the glass” not the girl? If it is not, who is the “witch” she sees there? Discuss.

3. Is there irony in this poem? And if so, toward whom is it extended?
4. Review the poem carefully and list all the words it uses that are related to mouths. Why does Piatt establish this pattern of images? How does it connect to the poem’s theme as a whole?

Analysis of Sarah Piatt’s "The First Party" (1882)

Dialogue Structure and Generational Dynamics. Published in 1882, “The First Party” is a classic dramatic dialogue composed entirely of direct quotations, requiring careful tracking of speaker voices and subtexts. The poem opens with a young girl exuberantly recounting her first adolescent, mixed-gender party to her mother. This event fosters a developing sense of independence from maternal authority as the daughter navigates peer group dynamics and the mysterious realm of romance. A familiar dynamic unfolds regarding her attire: her mother urged her to wear a modest dress, but the girl chose a garment with red ribbons that successfully captured the attention of the boys. The daughter defends her choice by criticizing her friend Rose for dressing too plainly in white, while quietly faulting her mother for failing to grasp the social necessity of attracting male interest.

Intertextual Subtexts and Withheld Truths. In contrast to the daughter's chatter, the mother's quiet voice enters sparingly: at the beginning of stanza 3, mid-way through stanza 4, and across the final two stanzas. Despite their brevity, her words reveal a significant communication gap that hides the mother's own romantic history. The poem simultaneously depicts two foundational social outings: the daughter’s immediate experience and the mother’s hidden past. When the daughter observes that the most handsome boy at the gathering resembles “that picture of—your brother’s friend,” Sarah Piatt uses a dash to signal withheld information.

Unspoken Truths and Symbolism. The reader gradually learns that the young man in the portrait was not merely a family acquaintance, but the central romantic figure from the mother’s youth. The mother reveals that this individual has passed away, keeping a dried flower bud from his grave. Uncertain of divine geography or the existence of an afterlife, she muses: “In some sweet foreign Country, it may be, / Among the palms”.

Misinterpretation and Loss of Innocence. The innocent daughter interprets her mother's words literally, assuming a young man named Adam gave her the flower while she was in Eden. The mother was speaking metaphorically: Adam symbolized her first love, and Eden represented her vanished state of innocence. When the daughter realizes the flower came from a grave, she recoils from touching it, confronting concepts of age, mortality, and grief. The mother’s melancholy stems both from remembering her own loss and from recognizing that her daughter is entering a similar trajectory of emotional pain.

Academic Discussion and Pedagogical Directives. The original source material provides five analytical prompts designed for academic writing, close textual reading, and thematic discussion:

1st question: Examine the emotional balance between the daughter's exuberant joy and the mother's reflective melancholy, identifying three specific textual instances where word choices reveal the speaker's shifting mood.

2nd question: Analyze every instance where the daughter refers to her friend Rose, comparing Piatt's technique to Robert Browning's dramatic monologues to evaluate what these unintended self-disclosures reveal about the daughter's character.

3rd question: Examine the use of the dash in line 3 as a structural marker of withheld information or shifting perspective, analyzing how the delivery would change if directed to a peer rather than the mother.

4th question: Distinguish between the daughter's perspective on her school's social environment and Piatt's overarching authorial tone, evaluating how critical distance operates within the poem.

5th question: Analyze the line "Why don't you listen, mamma?" in stanza 4 to explore the broader theme of active listening, evaluating whether either speaker truly hears the other and how this line encapsulates their relational dynamic.