Style Analysis: Mother of the Groom

“Mother of the Groom”-Heaney
'Mother of the Groom' by Heaney is a poem about the feelings, thoughts and memories that the groom's mother feels on her son's wedding day. The poem displays the sadness, sense of loss, and shock that a mother commonly goes through when she “loses” her son in marriage. The mother thinks back to the days when her son was a baby. The mother remembers washing the baby’s “glistening” back, which symbioses the beauty she saw in her son. The baby’s “glistening back” is also used by the speaker to show how the son is going away from his mother (to his wife).
In the poem, “Mother of the Groom”, Heaney uses various literary techniques to convey the message of his poem to the reader. “The ring of boots at her feet” connects to “the wedding ring” on the mother’s finger and to the unmentioned ring her son will give to the woman who will now “replace” his mother. The ring is now “bedded forever now” in her hand, which brings to mind the image of the wedding “bed”. Throughout the poem, the speaker uses many sexual connotations such as “glistening”, “slipped”, “lap”, and “bedded”, which shows that the mother knows that intimacy is ahead for her son, while her intimacy is behind her(such as the pleasures associated with marriage—sex and children). During the wedding, the mother is seen to be passive and absorbed in her thoughts. The mother “hears the daughter welcomed”, instead of welcoming the daughter herself (which is seen to be unusual—since that is now her granddaughter). This suggests to the reader that the mother feels a sense of sadness and regret, now that her role as a mother is now gone. Instead, the mother feels a sense of loss, now that her son has found a wife that can serve as a “replacement” for his mother.