The Full Text of “Sow”
The Full Text of “Sow”
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“Sow” Introduction
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"Sow" is an early poem by Sylvia Plath, written in 1957 and collected in The Colossus (1960). It describes a male farmer's female pig in wonder-struck terms, elevating her to the status of a mythical creature. The speaker declares that the sow's grandeur sets her far apart from her fellow pigs, and even the farmer, who treats her irreverently, recognizes her uniqueness. Ultimately, the sow becomes a symbol of tremendous female power held in confinement—yet capable of breaking loose and shaking the world.
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“Sow” Summary
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It's a mystery how our neighbor was able to raise such an enormous female pig. Whatever clever trick he used, he concealed it just as he concealed the pig herself—keeping her away from prying eyes and local livestock competitions.
But one evening, in response to our curiosity, he showed us by lantern light around his series of barns, leading us to the sunken door of the pigsty so we could gawk at the sow.
This sow looked nothing like a china piggybank, the kind painted with flowers and with a slot for frugal kids to drop coins into.
Nor did it resemble a stupid, easy-to-mock pig who will soon be slaughtered, cooked golden-brown, and garnished with parsley.
It didn't even resemble one of the normal farmyard sows—muddy, coarse, eating weeds and thistles while nosing around, milky and bloated and on the go, surrounded by a litter of dainty-footed piglets squealing against her body and stopping to nurse at her pink teats.
No, this hulking giant of a pig wallowed on her belly in dark muck, dreaming with her swollen, wrinkly, filmy eyelids shut.
This old great-grandma must have been having a riveting dream about life as a pig in ancient times. Awed, we imagined a knight in helmet and armor, defeated in a tree grove, fallen off his horse and torn to pieces by a bristly male pig—one extraordinary enough for the sow to mate with.
But just then, our neighbor whistled at her and cheerfully punched her barrel-like body in the neck. The sow woke from her dream of the castle-like tree grove, letting it fall away like mud flakes, grunting and heaving herself up in the fiery lantern-light.
Her imposing body was as ravenous as the legendary hog whose appetite made normal pig-slops look like a fast—who, accepting no limits, devoured all the oceans and trembling continents as if eating from a trough.
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“Sow” Themes
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The Power of Animals and Nature
The speaker of "Sow" marvels at their neighbor's female pig, an enormous creature wallowing in its pigsty. Over the course of the poem, the speaker "gape[s]" in wonder at the animal's bulk and appetite, reaching for a series of elaborate comparisons in the process. Ultimately, the sow seems to defy all description: even while slowly waking up in its pen, she seems as vast and indomitable as the earth itself. In general, the poem celebrates the glorious power of animals and nature—something it suggests humans can only partly tame, and which leaves us breathlessly searching for adequate language to capture it.
The poem's descriptions stress the pig's tremendous size and power. The speaker repeatedly describes the sow as "great," "vast," "monument[al]," and so on. Her eyes are covered with "Fat," her neck resembles a "barrel," and she's even more impressive than the "common barnyard sows," who are themselves "Bloat[ed]" and "hulk[ing]." She's a creature of huge appetites, too. The speaker compares her to a mythical "hog" who "stomach[s] no constraints" (i.e., whose appetite knows no bounds) and ends up swallowing the entire world.
Indeed, throughout the poem, the sow exceeds human expectations for—and representations of—pigs. She even seems to strain the speaker's capacity for hyperbolic descriptions and comparisons. The speaker emphasizes that this sow looks nothing like a china piggy bank, the kind of "dolt[ish]" pig humans make fun of or eat for dinner, or even her fellow "barnyard sows." She's in a class by herself, comparable only to creatures of legend.
While "marvel[ing]" at her, the speaker imagines the sow relishing a triumphant dream. In this dream scenario, the "Boar" who wins her as a mate must prove himself "fabulous enough" to deserve her. The sow is so exceptional, it seems, that she tests the limits of her male counterparts, even fictional ones. In the end, there seems to be "no constraint" on her power or appetites: she seems capable of dominating the entire world.
There's a wrinkle, however: this pig is in a pen, owned by a farmer who treats her with casual "jocular[ity]" (or humor). Thus, the poem might be read as a warning to humans: even our most domesticated animals hold a savage power we ignore or mock at our own risk. After all, the sow's dream involves a boar (male pig) ripping a human warrior to "shred[s]." Deep down, she sees herself as a proud, ferocious, wild animal, not as docile livestock. Though she wakes into a world where she's held captive, the poem suggests that she has not accepted this "constraint." Humans would be wise to respect, not underestimate, her "monument[al]" might—and the same goes for nature in general.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-45
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Vision, Imagination, and Myth
The speaker of "Sow" presents the titular animal in grand, hyperbolic, even mythical terms. They emphasize the air of secrecy and mystery that surrounds the pig and liken her to legendary beasts and monsters. They even claim that she stars in fabulous adventures within her own dreams. The speaker's extraordinary descriptions suggest that even something as humble and dirty as a pig can transcend the mundane—and become the stuff of visionary poetry or timeless myth. But because the sow is still, in the end, a barnyard animal, the poem also illustrates how myths require imaginative humans to construct them.
The poem initially frames the pig as a kind of local legend. The speaker marvels that only "God knows how" their neighbor "managed to breed" her; she's the product of some "shrewd secret" he's managed to keep from the community. Though he hides his incredible pig from the "public stare," he entertains the speaker's curiosity and allows them to gawk at her. From the start, then, the sow is presented as a fascinating, improbable, and mysterious beast.
The speaker then repeatedly illustrates the sow's spectacular size by comparing her to legendary or mythic creatures. For example, the sow rests within a "Maze of barns": a likely allusion to the Minotaur of Greek myth, a monster who lives at the center of a labyrinth. Later, the speaker calls the sow a "vast / Brobdingnag bulk." This phrase alludes to Jonathan Swift's satire Gulliver's Travels, in which the fictional land of Brobdingnag is populated by giants. The speaker also describes the sow as "A monument / Prodigious in gluttonies" (i.e., a gigantic figure of formidable appetite) and compares her to "that hog" who swallowed the seas and continents. This comparison might refer to a boar or pig from ancient myth (there are many!), or one of the speaker's own invention. Regardless, it invokes some sort of fantastical, frightening, larger-than-life creature existing within the bounds of everyday life.
According to the speaker, the sow even dreams of herself as a mythic beast. In other words, she's a legend in her own mind—just as she is in the speaker's mind. The speaker declares that the sleeping pig must be "engross[ed]" by a "vision of ancient hoghood": specifically, must be dreaming of a "Boar" who has conquered a human "knight" on her behalf. Even as she sleeps in filth, then, she supposedly imagines herself as the heroine of a "legend." Though this legend dissolves when she awakes, the speaker immediately compares her to an even more "monument[al]" figure. Both in dream and in fact, she's phenomenally impressive, seeming to transcend the filthy "sty" around her.
At the same time, there's a sense in which she's just a pig! Only human creativity exalts her into something more. It's clearly the speaker, "marvel[ing]" at the sow, who comes up with the "vision of ancient hoghood." (It's extremely unlikely that a sow's dream would really feature a "knight," for example.) And the speaker's awed attitude contrasts with that of the farmer, who's proud of his "great sow" but "whistle[s]" at her and "thwack[s]" her just as he would any other pig. Ultimately, then, the poem becomes a showcase for the poet's own imagination. Where another observer might simply see a humble, dirty animal, the poet-speaker envisions the pig as the stuff of dreams and nightmares.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-10
- Lines 23-45
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Female Power, Subjugation, and Revolt
The pig in "Sow" is a symbol of exceptional female power, the kind Plath often depicted in her poetry. In the speaker's telling, she resembles an earthly goddess or proud matriarch, regally "loung[ing]" in her sty. Yet she's also held captive by a male farmer who treats her, condescendingly, as a mere possession. In addition to marveling at an example of female power, then, the poem also depicts a world that holds such power in check—for a time, anyway. In the end, the sow seems capable of shaking the earth, suggesting that the farmer's control over her—or any limits men place on female independence—may be illusory.
The poem casts the sow as a striking representative of female strength and vitality. The speaker admiringly calls her a "great grandam": a regal, matriarchal figure. She's not flanked by "a litter" of babies or turned into a "crackling" meal—not forced to sacrifice herself to motherhood and others' needs. Nor is she delicate, like a "china" piggybank, or unintelligent, like the "dolt[ish]" pigs humans might "heckl[e]." She's powerful, independent, and has dreams of her own. She's a sexual figure as well: she envisions herself (according to the poet, anyway) as the ultimate catch. Only the most "fabulous" boar is worthy of her when she's in "heat."
Yet the sow's strength and vitality are, for now at least, under male control. The sow is kept by the farmer, a man. She's hidden away, bred as “His,” and gawked at by humans. Her power seems to have been domesticated and locked away. Her confinement isn't pretty, either. She sleeps on a "bed[]" of black muck, and the farmer can "whistle[]" at and "thwack[]" her at any time—not to mention kill her! She has no freedom of movement or control over her body, and her dignity is constantly undermined.
The poem's ending, then, seems to imagine female rebellion against male "constraint." The sow represents a kind of femininity that's unwilling to remain docile and domestic. The phrase "Prodigious in gluttonies" suggests that the sow is insatiable in pursuing her own appetites; she won't let others restrict them. And her appetites are limitless. She won't be satisfied with "kitchen slops" (perhaps like feminist women who have refused confinement to the "kitchen" or home). However confined she is for now, she has power enough to "swill" the whole globe—to make the world her own. In this way, the sow resembles other Plath heroines (such as the famous "Lady Lazarus") who burst out in revolt against male oppression.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-6
- Lines 11-45
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sow”
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Lines 1-6
God knows how ...
... and pig show."Sow" is a poem about just what it sounds like: an adult female pig. Lines 1-6 frame this sow as a formidable and mysterious creature. She belongs to the speaker's "neighbor," a farmer, and is a source of local amazement: "God knows how [he] managed to bread / His great sow," the speaker marvels.
The word "great" here primarily means large, but in the context of the poem as a whole, it could refer to a more intangible kind of greatness as well. The plural speaker ("our") doesn't identify themselves, but clearly represents two or more people who live near the farmer. (The poem was inspired by a real-life visit Plath and her husband, fellow writer Ted Hughes, took to a farm in rural England.)
Whatever method the farmer used to breed such a large animal, he keeps it a "shrewd secret." In fact, he won't show either the method or the pig to most of his neighbors. He keeps the sow "impounded," or locked away, "from public stare, / Prize ribbon and pig show." That is, he keeps her hidden from curious onlookers and won't enter her in any local livestock competitions (the kind where a pig might win a prize). It seems this animal attracts so much fascination and speculation that she's taken on the quality of a divine mystery: only "God" seems to know the full truth about her.
These opening stanzas establish the poem's form: tercets (three-line stanzas) with occasional rhyme (including slant rhymes, such as "breed"/"hid" and "sow"/"show") but no consistent rhyme scheme or meter. The poem seems a little resistant, in fact, to strict formal rules—like a pig that's not quite happy in its pen.
The lines are densely packed with alliteration ("sow"/"secret"/"same"/"sow"/"stare"; "public"/"Prize"/"pig"), as well as assonance and internal rhyme ("how"/"sow," "same way," "sow"/"impounded," "ribbon"/"pig"). These sound effects give the language a slow, weighty, robust quality that fits the poem's subject.
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Lines 7-10
But one dusk ...
... gape at it: -
Lines 11-16
This was no ...
... a parsley halo; -
Lines 17-23
Nor even one ...
... the pink teats. -
Lines 23-29
No. This vast ...
... The great grandam!— -
Lines 29-33
our marvel blazoned ...
... that sow's heat. -
Lines 34-39
But our farmer ...
... light to shape -
Lines 40-45
A monument ...
... every earthquaking continent.
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“Sow” Symbols
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The Sow
The sow in "Sow" is a complex symbol of female power and strength. The poem as a whole seems to show how such power can be both confined and limitless.
On the one hand, the sow is a barnyard animal living an unglamorous life. She's penned in by a pigsty, and she sleeps on a bed of mud. She's been bred by a male farmer who considers her "His great sow," and who treats his possession with "jocular" abuse and condescension. (He cheerfully "thwack[s]" her with his "fist" to wake her up.) Precisely because the farmer knows she's special, he locks her out of sight (beyond the "public stare") and won't even let her compete in "pig show[s]." In all these ways, the sow might symbolize the position of women in a male-dominated society: confined, controlled, mistreated, and disrespected from birth. Under such a system, "great[ness]" may be punished with additional exploitation and control.
On the other hand, the speaker manages to get a glimpse of how "marvel[ous]" the sow is and suggests that she "Dream[s]" of freedom, dignity, and a kind of revenge. (However, the speaker imagines a male "Boar" enacting that revenge, complicating the poem's feminist symbolism.) The sow has not given up her body to satisfy others' needs; she's not surrounded by a "litter" of children or destined for the farmer's dinner table. In other words, her greatness has nothing to do with motherhood or self-sacrifice—traditional expectations for women in Plath's day. On the contrary, she's presented as a creature of large appetites and sexual power, attuned to her own needs and disdainful of "constraint." She seems to be an old pig—a "great grandam"—yet she still looks voracious enough to swallow the world. Symbolically, her hunger may represent limitless, though so far thwarted, ambition (as in the phrase hungry for success).
As a writer whose work became increasingly feminist, Plath seems to identify with the sow's plight and power. Arguably, she turns the animal into an allegory for her own frustration and ambition.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-45
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“Sow” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Metaphor
The poem's bold, colorful metaphors and similes bring the "Sow" and her surroundings to vivid life.
For example, the phrase "Maze of barns" (line 9) suggests that the sow lives on a rather large farm, one with a complex series of structures and outbuildings. The reference to a "parsley halo" (line 16)—the sprinkling of herbs that garnishes a cooked pig—casts slaughtered livestock as martyrs of a sort. The "Sow" of the poem has evidently avoided this fate; she has lived for herself rather than being sacrificed to others.
Later, the speaker compares the typical "barnyard sow[]" to a "Bloat tun of milk," meaning that adult female pigs are milky-white, bloated, and shaped like a barrel or tun. They find food by going on a metaphorical "snout-cruise," or sniffing along the ground. They are often "hedged," or surrounded, by piglets ("a litter of ninnies"). These offbeat metaphors have the effect of defamiliarizing a familiar animal, reminding the reader how comically awkward-looking pigs are.
Toward the end of the poem, metaphors and similes cast the main "Sow" as a sort of mythic creature. When she wakes from her dreams, the "legend" of past glory seems to fall off her like flakes of "mud." Sure, this simile means she's returning to her normal, humble life as a pig, but it also invests her with a lingering aura of the legendary. And as she rises from the mud, she looks anything but normal. The speaker compares her to "that hog"—some creature of myth or legend—who can't "stomach[]" (accept) any limits on its appetite, and "Proceed[s]" to "swill" the whole world. (In other words, devour the "seas" and "continent[s]" as if they were scraps of pig feed.) Both in her dreams and in reality, then, this sow is a force to be reckoned with.
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 9: “Maze of barns”
- Line 16: “In a parsley halo;”
- Line 19: “on her snout-cruise”
- Line 20: “Bloat tun of milk”
- Line 21: “hedged by a litter”
- Line 29: “our marvel blazoned a knight,”
- Line 37: “letting legend like dried mud drop,”
- Lines 39-45: “to shape / A monument / Prodigious in gluttonies as that hog whose want / Made lean Lent / Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint, / Proceeded to swill / The seven troughed seas and every earthquaking continent.”
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Assonance
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Alliteration
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Hyperbole
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Allusion
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"Sow" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Sow
- Impounded
- Commended
- Sty
- Lintel
- Suckling
- Rose-and-larkspurred
- Thrift
- Heckling
- Dolt
- Glorified
- Prime flesh
- Parsley halo
- Blowzy
- Mire-smirched
- Maunching
- Thistle and knotweed
- Snout-cruise
- Tun
- Hedged
- Litter
- Feat-foot ninnies
- Shrilling
- Teats
- Brobdingnag
- Belly-bedded
- Fat-rutted
- Dream-filmed
- Grandam
- Blazoned
- Helmed
- Cuirass
- Unhorsed
- Grove of combat
- Grisly-bristled
- Heat
- Jocular
- Barrel nape
- Green-copse-castled
- Hove
- Legend
- Prodigious
- Gluttonies
- That hog
- Lean Lent
- Slops
- Constraint
- Swill
- Troughed
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “His great sow:”; Line 33: “fabulous enough to straddle that sow's heat.”)
An adult female pig.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sow”
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Form
The poem consists of fifteen tercets (three-line stanzas). In most, though not all, of these tercets, the first and third lines rhyme. Some of the rhymes are exact; others are slant or imperfect. In many cases, the middle line of one stanza will rhyme with the first and/or third lines of the next. The middle line of each stanza is always either significantly shorter or significantly longer than the first and third lines. Though powerfully rhythmic, the poem never follows a regular meter.
The result is a form that has some consistent elements, but remains volatile rather than settled or rigid. Through its shifting rhymes and rhythms, the poem rebels against formal constraints, just as the sow seems to resist "constraint[s]" on her body and appetites (line 43). The tercets and (occasionally) interlocking rhyme scheme are reminiscent of terza rima, the form that Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321) famously used in his Divine Comedy. Modern poets sometimes adapt this form when evoking a "hellish" mood or setting, since the first part of Dante's epic takes place in hell. It's possible that Plath is aiming for a similar effect; like Dante's speaker, hers is being guided on a tour, and the "flickering light" of the barn's lantern-fire might be compared to hellfire. Dante's hell is full of monstrous creatures, and Plath presents the "Sow" as gigantic, freakishly powerful, etc. Still, if the form here is a Dante allusion, it's a playful one—after all, Plath's speaker seems drawn to the sow rather than frightened or repelled by her.
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Meter
"Sow" has no regular meter. It's more or less written in free verse, though it often rhymes. It has the same number of lines in each stanza (three), and the middle line of each stanza is always either longer or shorter than the other two, so the poem has elements of formal regularity. But the language never settles into a consistent rhythm.
The result is a poem that sounds unsettling and unpredictable, like the experience of going to see the giant sow. Plath's forceful, dramatic language is reined in, to some extent, by the tercet structure, just as the sow is confined by her pen. But it seems to push back against any other structure, pattern, or scheme.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem contains rhyme but doesn't follow a consistent rhyme scheme. Some of its rhymes are exact (e.g., "tour"/"door"), while others are slant or imperfect (e.g., "breed"/"hid" and "halo"/"blowzy"). In some cases, the middle line of one stanza rhymes with the first and/or third lines of the next (for example, "sow" in line 2 slant-rhymes with "show" in line 6, and "suckling" in line 11 slant-rhymes with "heckling" and "crackling" in lines 13 and 15).
This approach to rhyme makes the poem musically pleasurable, but never predictable. Like the "Sow" of the title—whom the speaker suggests will "stomach[] no constraint"—the poem's language resists the formal constraints of meter and strict rhyme.
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“Sow” Speaker
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The poem has a first-person plural speaker: an unnamed "us" visiting a farmer's "barnyard" and "marvel[ing]" at his largest sow. It's not clear why the farmer—who normally hides the sow from the "public stare"—lets the speaker see her, but something about their "questions" convinces him to give them a private tour. Perhaps their questions convey a depth of knowledge or a degree of curiosity he can't resist. When they see the sow, they're not disappointed; they "gape" in wonder, and their imaginations go into overdrive. They even imagine the pig's dreams in detail!
The poem was inspired by a September 1956 visit to a farm near Heptonstall, England. Plath and her husband Ted Hughes (who grew up in the area) visited a local farmer, who indeed showed them around his barns and gave them a look at his prize sow. Plath and Hughes wrote separate (and very different) poems about the visit; Hughes's "View of a Pig" is grimmer and describes a dead animal rather than a live one.
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“Sow” Setting
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The poem's setting is a farm or "barnyard," one that contains multiple barns arranged in a sort of "Maze." Inside one of these barns is a "[pig]sty," where the farmer's prize "Sow" lies on a bed of "black compost."
The setting was inspired by a real-life farm near Heptonstall, England, which Plath and her husband, fellow poet Ted Hughes, visited on September 7, 1956. According to scholar Nancy D. Hargrove:
[A]s a result of their expression of great interest, the farmer had allowed them to see "His great sow" which was ordinarily kept from public view. The sheer size and weight of the animal so impressed them that each wrote a poem based upon it [...]
Plath's poem turns this ordinary setting into a dramatic, almost mythical scene. The "flickering light" of lanterns creates an eerie, intense nighttime atmosphere. Given the pig's exceptional size, the "Maze of barns" seems to allude to the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur (a monster from Greek myth).
The speaker also conjures up a wholly imaginary setting, which supposedly appears in the sow's dreams: an ancient tree "grove" where a "Boar" defeats a human "knight" in combat. This vivid dream-scene adds to the aura of "legend" (line 37) surrounding the sow, while suggesting that she dreams of a more "fabulous" life than her humble sty provides.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Sow”
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Literary Context
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was a leading light of the Confessionalist poetry movement. Famous both for her intense, personal verse and her autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, Plath spoke what had been unspeakable about womanhood, mental illness, and other subjects in the first half of the 20th century. Unvarnished self-revelation was rare in English-language poetry at the time. As more and more writers adopted this revolutionary stance in their work during the 1950s and '60s, critics found a name for their movement: Confessionalism.
"Sow" is one of Plath's earlier poems, however, written before the Confessionalist movement blossomed. Plath finished it in early 1957, following a real-life barnyard visit (on a farm near Heptonstall, England) that also inspired her husband Ted Hughes's poem "View of a Pig." "Sow" appears in The Colossus (1960), the only collection Plath published in her lifetime. Though not as deeply personal or outwardly defiant as some of her later work, it takes up feminist themes, as it describes an extraordinary female creature kept in undignified confinement. Its closing vision of the sow's formidable power might be compared to the endings of "Lady Lazarus" or "Stings."
Historical Context
From adolescence onward, Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) suffered from recurring bouts of suicidal depression. Mental health treatments during this era were often crude and ineffective, and some of the treatments she received, including poorly administered electroconvulsive therapy, worsened her suffering. Much of her most famous work, including her novel The Bell Jar, details her struggles with mental instability and the questionable medical practices of the time.
Plath's writing is also considered a landmark in the history of feminist literature; she died just on the cusp of what became known as second-wave feminism. Following World War II (during which women often worked outside the home while men served in the military), women across Western society faced pressure to return to the home and fulfill their supposedly natural roles as wives and mothers. As a writer and academic, Plath found these stereotyped expectations oppressive.
Many women during this period felt profound unhappiness at their lack of autonomy, described by feminist writer Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963) as "the problem that has no name." Though Plath experienced career success as a writer, the social pressure she faced to fulfill the roles of wife and mother, as well as the double standards surrounding the behavior expected of husbands and wives, may have exacerbated her mental illness. Thus, much of Plath's writing involves troubled domestic settings and a complicated experience of motherhood and femininity.
In its symbolic way, "Sow" seems to bristle at the "constraint[s]" placed on women in Plath's era. The poet seems to identify with the "monument[al]" pig, who, unlike the "common barnyard sows," has not sacrificed her body to motherhood or to other creatures' exploitation or consumption.
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More “Sow” Resources
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External Resources
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Confessional Poetry — Read about the literary movement with which Plath's work became associated.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to Sylvia Plath reading "Sow."
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The Poet's Life — Read a short biography of Plath at the Poetry Foundation.
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Plath on Becoming a Writer — Listen to a 1962 interview with Plath.
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Hughes's Pig Poem — Read Ted Hughes's "View of a Pig," written after the same barnyard visit that inspired Plath's "Sow."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Sylvia Plath
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