When in “Words” Plath represents the eye regarding the pool, it no longer views its narcissistic image, as in “Gigolo,” but rather perceives the ordaining conditions of fate. The objectivity of regard in “Words,” as in “Berck-Plage,” arises from Plath’s adoption of a view that is post-traumatic, even posthumous, but it is a point of view tenaciously maintained as long as the poet is alive. It cools the eye and slows the pace from Ariel’s rapidity to water’s slow descent; it allows dryness as well as tears; it demands above all a dispassionate diagnosis of how things stand.