Mothers Poem

The poem “Mothers” by Nikki Giovanni is about two states of mind. An adult dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life and a concerned child. This is shown by the use of opposite words. “Dark-light” and “pleasantries and unpleasantries.” Being a child, Nikki was trying to make sense of what was happening around her. She sees her mother sitting in a chair in a dark room upset her. Nikki is apparently a frightened child. The wetting of the bed confirms her fear. She wrote about and absent father, so her mother is the only protection she had. She is afraid to loose her hence the search of strength in her mother.
The frequent use of the first person signifies that the speaker is the writer. Nikki Giovanni is going back in time through her
The dark moments Nikki's mother was living through during her childhood was a mystery to her as a child. But then, she was always trying to comfort herself by finding some kind of strength in her to ease her worries. Throughout this poem, Nikki only mentions her father and his night job once which may mean that her father is not very present in her life at all or her father does not exist. Nikki may have wet the bed out of fear of losing the only parent she had, her mother. Enter the biblical reference to Samson. Nikki’s symbol of strength to her as a child was her mother. Nikki compares the length of her mother’s hair to the length of Samson believing that from her hair, Nikki’s mother was able to draw her strength. “her hair was three-quarters her height which made me a strong believer in the Samson myth.”(Stanza 5). Samson realized that he is strong because God gave him his strength, not his hair. Samson’s realization was restated in Nikki’s mother's poem “I see the moon and the moon sees me god bless the moon and god bless me.”(Stanza 7). What seemed to be an enormous worry to Nikki as a child is nothing but a mother reflecting on her past and a woman who sees the cup half full. What the speaker saw as dark and worrisome, was, in fact, light and peace, Nikki's mother was a woman who knew how to balance her life. The speaker learned a precious lesson from her mother. Everything in life is a blessing. We learn from our sorrows how to be happy and we learn from our mistakes how to better