Resilience In Mother To Son

Mother to Son is an empowering poem from a mother to her son. The first part of the poem alludes to the mother explaining to her son that life isn’t easy. The mother explains the struggles that she has went through in her life span. The mother illuminates to her son, through trials and tribulations she has accumulated wounds, cuts, and bruises that life has brought a upon her. But despite these hardships she has learned when things become hopeless don’t run away. She has learned to face the obstacles, and issues with courage, and that her son must do the same. Though this poem the mother encourages her son to don’t give up no matter what life throws at you. The poem ends with a reminder from the mother that life won’t be easy for anyone and
that it is a steady process.

Mother to Son has many tones but, one of the tones that stand out is resilience.
The mother uses a metaphor to explain that through tails and tribulations she always can bounce back from it and use her hardships to motivate her and inspire her son to continue fighting. The mother’s fortitude even after obstacles displays her resilience. “Its tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up. And places with no carpet on the floors, bare. But all the time I’se been climbing, and reachin landins and corners, and sometimes, doing in the dark where there ain’t been no light.” Another tone that stands out is didactic. Didactic is one of the tones because in the poem the mother looks back in her life and wants her son to know life can be complicated, but she encourages her son to never look back, and don’t give up so easily, because if he does it will be hard. She wants to teach her son to stay positive and to keep climbing. An additional tone is inspirational. Inspiration is one of the tones because more towards the end of the poem, it illustrates an inspirational tone. The mother informs the son not to fall because, she’s “still climbin” If she can continue her rigorous journey after all the years then her son can be encouraged by his mother
example.

The speaker of the poem is a mother giving her son advice that represents a younger generation. The mother explains that difficulties in her life has made her successful, and wishes her son to be courage and fearless so he can be successful like her. The poem is established by the mother’s experiences, and memories. The poem uses an extended metaphor by the mothers’ life, and a perfidious staircase to show that life won’t always be easy and, it also uses repartition with the line, “Life for me ain’t no crystal stair.” You can infer that the mother was in poverty, because the poem uses imagery that reveals, “And boards torn up, / And places with no carpet on the floor.” These quotes indicate that the mother has experienced living in harsh conditions, but she overcame these conditions, to get where she is now. In Addition, imagery, and extended metaphor is shown in the poem by using a biblical comparison of Jacob’s ladder as the staircase, and the darkness and light represents the good, and bad times in the mother life.

Mother to son is structured as a short free poem that contains twenty lines, with no rhythm, or no precise rhyme. There are only a few times when there is rhyming in the poem, in the second line “stair”, and in the seventh line “bare”. The poem is written irregular, and has measured pattern. It also follows a trochaic meter such as “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” The poem uses informal language. It gives an impression that women are less educated, and most likely live in the country. Alliteration is often uses in the poem such as the “d” and “s” sounds. For example, “Don’t you set down on the steps. Anaphora is use in the poem at the beginning of many lines of the poem to emphasize the idea that the mother’s life was not perfect.