Symbol Analysis
The speaker comes up with all kinds of cool ways to describe the caps of mushrooms throughout the poem. That's a good thing, since mushrooms are the extended metaphor that runs through the whole piece. It'd get pretty boring if she described them the same way every time, right? More than just keeping the poem interesting, though, the speaker's descriptions subtly reveal all kinds of things about the people the mushrooms represent.
- Line 4: The speaker first describes the mushroom caps as "Our toes, our noses," which gives us our first hint that these mushrooms might be representing human beings. The noses part also adds to the idea of them "Acquiring the air." The idea of them being toes might connect with the end of the poem, where the speaker describes the mushrooms' collective "foot […] in the door."
- Line 10-14: Next, the caps of the mushrooms are called "soft fists." This thought is continued in the next stanza where they're "hammers" and "rams." All this seems to get across just how not-cool with their situation these mushrooms are. They might seem like pushovers, but they're fighting for a better life.
- Lines 25-26: The speaker does a total 180 with the next description of the mushroom caps. We go straight from the more aggressive image to having them be described as "shelves" and "tables." The contrast between these passive images to the fists, hammers, and rams from before kind of sums up the whole paradox that exists in the personality of these mushrooms. They want to be free, but their passive personalities hold them back.