Poem Analysis: The Mother By Gwendolyn Brooks

The contextual research of Shel Silverstein helped me to understand why Silverstein wrote such a book. His father was not a positive parental figure in his life, while his own daughter who he did not spend too much time with, died at the age of 11. His regrets and sadness for not being there for his child seem to shine through his sad ending of a child and parent relationship. The poem reminded me of the novel “Keep Holding On” as it also features a single mother who makes multiple sacrifices to keep her daughter healthy, but she is taken for granted by her daughter who is bullied due to her lack of clothing etc. The connection helps me to understand how society, who wishes Noelle to look a certain way, changed Noelle’s outlook on her mother.

The tone of this poem is very important. Throughout as I was reading this poem I sensed heartfelt and great concern for the new mother. Also, in this poem one may notice the role of

Lines two through five move past depicting her as the mother and express how she feels embarrassed that her works were published before she was ready to share them with the world and without her consent. She says that the "child" had been by her side until "snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true" (line 3). Basically she is saying a trusted person "snatched" her work from her without permission to take them to England to be printed. Had it not been for her brother-in-law taking her work back to England and getting them printed they may have never been known. The intimacy and feeling she shares with her work is like that of a mother and child and that bond was infringed upon when her work was "exposed to public view" (line 4). The intrusion of her brother-in-law getting her work printed is the cause of feeling that follow. Ironically the next thing she talks is the shame she has been thrust upon her by not being able to perfect the work before it was published. This is illustrated in line five where she writes, "Made thee in rags," as to say her work is like a child dressed in rags.

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.

Brooks creates a horrific imagery that abortions are terrible; and in the poem “The Mother “,she mirrors herself to reality to show the missed opportunities of a child, that women who have aborted their children, will miss. In the poem, it pinpoints a woman’s experience of aborting a child, and then feeling guilty about it, as a mother. In contrast to the author of the poem, Gwendolyn Brooks is a woman who has also aborted a child numerous of times, feels relentless. She communicates with her audience, women, through the poem to recap what the unborn children would become in the future such as singers and workers. “You were born, you had body, you died. It is you never giggled or planned or cried.” When Brooks talk about the missed opportunities that women will never see, she refers to a mother with treacherous experiences. Symbolically, she reflects as a role model for all women who have undergone the situation.

What is motherhood you ask? Motherhood is many worthy and ruthless things combined into one. When becoming a mom, your child completely becomes your life. You always put them first, even before yourself, no questions asked. You provide for you children and love them unconditionally through the good and bad. Having children puts a lot of weight on your shoulders and you are expected to lift it all. Nobody ever said motherhood was easy, and it’s effortless to see why sometimes. In the poems “Daystar”, “In the Park”, and “Marks” we see many views of how motherhood has affected these women and how hard being a mother can be.

“The Victims” and “The Abortion”: Aim the Complexity Both Sharon Olds and Anne Sexton are two famous confessional poets in their era. Apparently, Sharon Olds and Anne Sexton have similar family background that influenced their artworks. Olds was born in unhappy family, and she often suffered abuse from her alcoholic father, so was Sexton . To overcome the depression that they have suffered, both Olds and Sexton choose writing as a therapy for their psyche. “The Victims” and “The Abortion” (reprinted in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Sound and Sense, 10th ed.

In Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “The Mother”, the author expresses a lot of her thoughts and feelings in order to share her experience. It is written in the first person and the narrator is adopted by the author herself, Gwendolyn Brooks, who embodies a weaken mother. In this poem, Gwendolyn Brooks tries to portray what abortion is for a woman and to describe the harsh truth about how women feel afterwards. Thus, this poem is mostly targeted to aim females and their feelings. First of all, abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. First, the narrator uses many imageries, description, and a precise choice of words to explain this emotional topic of abortion. Second, her use

In this essay I will compare and contrast two literary works, Metaphors by Sylvia Path and the mother by Gwendolyn Brooks. While only fifteen years separate both poems, both works explore motherhood and pregnancy. In, Metaphors

In the beginning of the poem the mother makes it clear that she is reminiscing on her abortions with “Abortions will not let you forget” (line1) from this line we understand that she is a mother, she addresses the audience directly with the word “you” this automatically involves the audience into the poem. The first line brings you into the poem and makes you want to read more. The lines following this gives insight into the first line. Just because someone has an abortion it will not let them forget, the saying out of sight out of mind does not apply in the case. “The children you got that you did not get” (line2) the way Brooks worded this line appeals to me. “ the children you got” meaning the baby or fetuses she was pregnant

The children are unnoticed by others and the mother is the only one that is protecting them. This poem shows the hard times that the mother must face because her children have died. However the mother is coping with them while still protecting her children after they have died, This is the mother's way of coping because she is not yet ready to let go of her children and still wants to care for them. This poem shows this through nature by portraying the mother as a bird who is protecting her nest. Also the poem uses nature by describing the harsh times as a winter wind that has caused harm to the mother and her children.

In “The Mother”, Brooks discusses the mental torment that she has experienced after having an abortion. She writes that “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 388), meaning that the burdensome decision to have an abortion is something that will haunt her for years, because she agree to end the life of her own child. A woman’s connection to her child is extremely powerful and she must cope with the love that she had extinguished. At first glance, Hemingway’s story illustrates how a pregnancy can upset a happy relationship. The relationship between the man and the

"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.

In Anne Sexton’s poem “The Abortion”, she uses literary devices to reflect her heart wrenching decision of whether or not to abort one of her children, which reflects the style of confessional poetry because she is sharing her personal feelings and experiences. Anne Sexton was a famous poet of confessional poetry, where the poets write about their private experiences with feelings about death, trauma, and depression in their lives. Anne Sexton wrote from the point of view of an upper middle class woman. She had two children, and the stress of having them, gave her life long depression. Sexton was sent to a psychiatric hospital after the birth of her second child. “The Abortion” displays all of Sexton’s feelings that she has about her abortion.

Being a mother is one of the best gifts from a life. A mother gives her children unconditional love without expecting anything in return. Being a mother means more than having given birth to a child. It is an invisible connection between mother and child; it is a blessing, a relationship that never ends and the love that never dies. However, for some women, motherhood might be challenging in ways they did not expect, forcing them to choose between having an abortion and keeping the child. The debate over abortion is an ardent and polarizing issue as there are those who believe that all humans including those unborn should have a right to life, and on the other side of the spectrum are those who believe it should a woman's right to choose whether she wants an abortion or not. This topic relates to Gwendolyn Brooks's poem, "The Mother", where the author describes the painful thoughts, heartbreak, and awful feelings that a woman experiences after having an abortion. Brooks lays out a helpful framework for understanding the difficult situation of facing unplanned pregnancy. In "The Mother", a woman recollects her inner conflicts as she laments over the guilt of having had an abortion and the future she never gave her would be child. Brooks's poem provides insight into the research which reveals how abortion affects women morally, psychologically, and religiously.