Common Ground

This poem makes me feel sympathetic towards the author. It is obvious by her negative descriptions that she does not like what she sees when she looks in the mirror. We first get the impression that she is unhappy when she describes her stern lips. That tone of unhappiness is carried all the way through the poem, and it is almost human nature to feel sympathetic when someone is unhappy.

The overall tone of this poem is bitter. The author expresses her disappointment of her aging body in her diction. Someone with stern lips would be expressing an emotion similar to bitterness. The readers get a mental image of her trying to smooth out her wrinkles, but when she releases the skin from her nervous hands we would expect her to be bitter about the reappearing wrinkles.