Poetry and Mother Essay

OutlineIt 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 keep. She feels that there is much more than to life than reading or writing poetry. Despite her protest, the mother glances at the poem while she continues to wash clothes.Stanza 1The 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 imprint 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 be effectively captured in the description of the women hunched over the washtub and her shrivelled hands. The treatment hunched suggests her strenuous routine which has bodil yly 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 2The words of the childs poem are compared to a piece of slippery soap. Just as soap is used to cleanse unordered 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 regain 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 patronize her to cope with the oppressive burden of life.Stanza 3It 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) provided the fact that she does read the poem indicates that she is aware of its significance and healing power. (A poem appeals to our aesthetic sense.) It makes us see life in detail and appreciate the multi-faceted experiences of life. The word scanning suggests that she does read the poem.The credit rating to the mothers blue-ringed gaze suggests that she has a deeper, appreciative side to her nature. Note that the colour blue is usually associated with sky and beauty. The reference to the dirty water is a metaphor for the pollution and corruption of life which have sullied or dirtied capacity to be sensitive to the beauty of nature of life.Stanza 4The poem ends on a positive note. The mother continues to hold onto the words of the poem, the word clenched recalls the term grabbed of stanza 2, it means to hold tightly onto something. That the words are clenched smaller and smaller indicates the great effort exerted by the mother to make the world of poetry a part of her life, she realises the value of poetry to cash in ones chips her through the difficulties of life.Central message of the poemThe poem whilst a cknowledging the burden and harshness of life, confirms the value of developing our aesthetic nature, our capacity to appreciate what life has to offer as the only hope to cope with the hostility and problems we encounter on a daily basis.Further ConsiderationThe writer uses simple words to reinforce the innocent, complete(a) exchange between mother and child. The simplicity of the words in addition evokes the humility of their life the setting is most likely a rural one.The poem also has a simple structure the lines are uniform and short reinforcing the simple effort of the child to console her mother.