Poetry and Mother
Poem for my Mother – Jennifer Davids
Notes
Outline
It is an afternoon and the mom is washing clothes in a tub. The child has written a poem for her mother and gives it to her as she is washing. The mother scans the poem but rejects it as not being ‘all there is to life’. She feels that there is much more to life than reading or writing poetry. Despite her protest, the mother glances at the poem while she continues to wash clothes.
Stanza 1
The mother obviously has given her life to hard work and struggle and seems to have lost interest in life. She does not seem to appreciate the effort of her child to offer some relief or change in her burdensome routine. That her mother washes in the afternoon indicates that her workload is enormous (as washing is usually done in the morning so the clothes can be hung out to dry.)
The images of stress and strain are effectively captured in the description of the women ‘hunched’ over the washtub and her ‘shrivelled hands’. The word ‘hunched’ suggests her strenuous routine which has physically harmed her posture. The comparison of her hands to the shrivelled burnt skin of granadilla evokes the destructive efforts of hard labour on her physical body.
Stanza 2
The words of the child’s poem are compared to a piece of slippery soap. Just as soap is used to cleanse dirt off clothes in this case, so too do the words of the poem give the mother strength and the power to bear her burden to restore her to some state of wholesomeness, just like soap restores clothes to their original clean condition. Note that the mother ‘grabbed’ the words and ‘used’ them, suggesting that she needed them desperately to sustain her to cope with the oppressive burden of life.
Stanza 3
It is the burden of life which weighs down oppressively, that prevents the mother from appreciating or being sensitive to other aspects of life (like reading and enjoying poetry) But the fact that she does read the poem indicates that she is aware of its
Notes
Outline
It is an afternoon and the mom is washing clothes in a tub. The child has written a poem for her mother and gives it to her as she is washing. The mother scans the poem but rejects it as not being ‘all there is to life’. She feels that there is much more to life than reading or writing poetry. Despite her protest, the mother glances at the poem while she continues to wash clothes.
Stanza 1
The mother obviously has given her life to hard work and struggle and seems to have lost interest in life. She does not seem to appreciate the effort of her child to offer some relief or change in her burdensome routine. That her mother washes in the afternoon indicates that her workload is enormous (as washing is usually done in the morning so the clothes can be hung out to dry.)
The images of stress and strain are effectively captured in the description of the women ‘hunched’ over the washtub and her ‘shrivelled hands’. The word ‘hunched’ suggests her strenuous routine which has physically harmed her posture. The comparison of her hands to the shrivelled burnt skin of granadilla evokes the destructive efforts of hard labour on her physical body.
Stanza 2
The words of the child’s poem are compared to a piece of slippery soap. Just as soap is used to cleanse dirt off clothes in this case, so too do the words of the poem give the mother strength and the power to bear her burden to restore her to some state of wholesomeness, just like soap restores clothes to their original clean condition. Note that the mother ‘grabbed’ the words and ‘used’ them, suggesting that she needed them desperately to sustain her to cope with the oppressive burden of life.
Stanza 3
It is the burden of life which weighs down oppressively, that prevents the mother from appreciating or being sensitive to other aspects of life (like reading and enjoying poetry) But the fact that she does read the poem indicates that she is aware of its