Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles / Proceed from your great lips.
-- Speaker (Lines 3-4)

Importance: This line uses expressive auditory imagery to describe the sounds emanating from the statue. The comparisons are unflattering and suggest a sense of discord and chaos. Notably, the statue is not really making any sound at all; the sounds are coming from the speaker’s perception of what the statue represents. The word “bawdy” implies the statue, and by proxy the focus of the speaker’s attention, is disreputable and disappointing.

Thirty years now I have labored / To dredge the silt from your throat.
-- Speaker (Lines 8-9)

Importance: This line references the poet’s own life — Plath was almost thirty at the time when this poem was written. This suggests a lifelong battle and the sense that the speaker has never known anything else. The attempt to unclog the statue’s throat implies a block in communication, and an inability to understand what the...