Sheep are first mentioned when the speaker notes there is “no life higher than […] the hearts of sheep” (Lines 10-11). The conjunction of sheep with life and a vital organ implies that the sheep symbolize a robust life force, unlike the speaker’s life force. This idea of the sheep as a vital, solid force is reinforced in Stanza 3 when the speaker notes the “sheep know where they are” (Line 19). Though made up of “dirty wool-clouds” (Line 20), the sheep are hardly cloudy; instead, they are associated with sureness, judgement, and hardness. Plath uses the sheep as symbols for people who know their place in the world, in opposition to the alienated speaker-persona. The poet also plays on popular metaphors around sheep to create new associations. The sheep’s grandmotherly disguises are a reference to the idiom “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” as well as the wolf in the fairy tale of Red Riding Hood. In both cases, the sheep stand for deception and trickery, all the more dangerous because of their benign, absurd appearance.

The poet also riffs on the notion of sheep being unthinking followers. The sheep in the poem are a collective, implying a closed society that obeys its internal rules.