Ruth WhitmanÆs Castoff Skin uses a snake and its ability to shed its skin as the central metaphor of this poem about the passing away of a ninety-six year old woman. The speaker uses figurative language and imagery to convey this metaphor in the poem. In Castoff Skin the speaker tells us the woman was ôsmall as a twigö, ôcrawled awayö, left a ôtiny stretched transparence behind herö, and reminds the speaker of ôthe snakeö with ôhis quick motionö, (Whitman 1966). All of these images suggest the shedding of the skin by a snake. The snake is often able to disguise itself in the woods by resembling a twig. A snake crawls away like the old womanÆs life ebbs away. Snakes often leave a stretched ôtransparentö version of themselves in the shed skin they leave behind after molting. Further, the old womanÆs life ultimately passes so quickly it reminds the speaker of the often quick motions of a snake.
Whitman also relies heavily on alliteration in Castoff Skin to mimic the slithering and sounds of a snake. The letter ôsö is used throughout the first stanza: ôsheö, ôgirlishö, ôsleepö, ôninety-sixö, ôsmallö, ôasö, ôsheö, and ôsaidö, (Whitman 1966). The word ôonceö that ends the stanza also sounds like ôsö. Such use of alliteration mimics the hissing or slithering sound often made by a snake. The letter ôsö also helps roll sounds from one word to the next in a fluid and quick motion much like a snake moves. The use of alliteration to achieve this effect is also used in the second stanza: ôsheö, ôstretchedö, ôtransparenceö, ôkissedö, ôsnakeö, and ôhisö, (Whitman 1966). Like in the first stanza, the second stanza ends with a word that does not include the letter ôsö but sounds like it does, ômotionö (mo-shun).
The metaphor of the snake suggests that the speaker of the poem likens mortality to a shedding of our human ôskinö. Much as Shakespeare used
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