Explication of "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath

The obvious metaphor in Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphors" is that of pregnancy. The poem starts off by saying that it is a riddle and must be deciphered. The author then presents metaphor after metaphor; an elephant, a house, a melon, a red fruit, a loaf that is rising, money in a fat purse, a cow in a calf, and a bag of green apples. The poem itself is a riddle of nine syllables. The poem is nine lines long and each line consists of nine syllables. Pregnancy also lasts for nine months the the number nine is significant in this poem. When the reader imagines the metaphors in this poem , they can begin to put the pieces together. An elephant is very large, ponderous is another word for large,  a melon is round in plump much like a pregnant woman's belly, and when i red fruit is mentioned, one thinks of an apple or maybe a tomato that can also be compared to a pregnant woman's belly. The loaf of bread that is rising metaphor compares to a pregnant women's belly rising as the baby inside grows. The money in a fat purse compares the the expenses of having a child. The cow and a calf metaphor relates to how a women may be seen as a "cow" as she gets larger and larger as a pregnancy progresses. The bag of green apples metaphor also relates to the size of a woman's belly as pregnancy progresses. Last but not least, the last line is; "Boarded the train there's no getting off." This implies that the author knows that there is no escaping pregnancy; her life is forever changed and will never go back to the way it was before.