The poem is famous for its opening line and for referring to conservative Munich as the "morgue between Paris and Rome."
The poem is written in 13 couplets, ending with a single one-line stanza, and follows no rhyme scheme.
In "The Munich Mannequins" Plath refers to the lives of women and how they are seen by others, specifically with regard to how biological functions related to childbearing are perceived to define them.
The first line of the poem, "Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children," refers both to the appearance of the culturally ubiquitous live German models and that of inanimate mannequins.
[2] Literary critic Pamela J. Annas argues "The Munich Mannequins" describes "particularly well the social landscape within which the "I" of Sylvia Plath's poems is trapped".