The speaker in this poem is the mirror. It is silver and exact. It has no feeling and absorbs
what ever it sees. It is neither cruel nor loving. All it reflects is the truth. The place of the mirror is on the wall where it hangs. The wall has grown pink and speckled with time. The wall opposite to the one on which it hangs has become a regular part of the mirror and parts only when darkness falls.
When a woman looks into it, she reaches for what she once had been in her youth. That way the mirror is like a lake. But the mirror reflects back what she has become at present. She starts weeping over her lost youth, sheds a few tears and moves her hands. She looks each morning into the mirror to see herself. This woman has grown into old woman from a young girl once. She rises towards her day like a terrible fish and does her daily duties in that mood. That is now she realizes that she is no longer young and beautiful.