Analysis of the Poem The Mother By Gwendolyn Brooks - Literature review Example

Analysis of the Poem The Mother By Gwendolyn Brooks In the first one-third of the piece, Gwendolyn Brooks initiated rather with a straight affecting cut and gathers all within a sharp word the necessary mood by which the theme must be conveyed. ‘Abortions’ – As if to generate a resonance of accusation somewhere, such word sounds too sharp that regardless of the amount and stress of the pitch used, a mere utterance utters all. The poet must have begun with second person reference to point out a necessity of realization outside of herself though the ambiguity in using ‘You’ could randomly pertain to the affected reader or the speaker. More specifically, ‘You remember the children you got that you did not get (Brooks)’ becomes a statement of emphasis that justifies a ground for guilt to lurk. Directness might have made ‘The Mother’ less figurative at such beginning yet it appears necessary to establish a moment of introspection to follow recollections. This way, acute emotions are drawn especially with ‘The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair (Brooks)’ that is imaginatively a key to sharp remembrance. Then Brooks attempts at the horrible memories to operate on carrying a burden of regret toward a number of wonderful possibilities which could have taken place if one had not thrown the chance of keeping the unborn and completing her motherhood. That is why ‘You will never’ as attached to every lovely chance is enticingly spoken of in an imperative manner or that which suggests an inevitable outcome between a command and a curse. Regret becomes profound on enumerating what-if instances of ‘the singers and workers that never handled the air’, ‘buy with a sweet’, ‘sucking-thumb’, and ‘luscious sigh’. These phrases of joy make it all the more excruciating to have missed on something to be highly proud about by virtue of being a woman in full measure, capable of having children and of providing them the means to live and enjoy little pleasures bound to form inspiration and happiness altogether. On the second portion of her work, the poet ensures the regretful reader that she is not alone in the newly-found struggle with conscience. She enters into a mode of soliloquy and brings across her own sentiments about this issue she can relate with well and that she equivalently calls forth the reader to listen that she understands, for the speaker has been through it herself. As an unfulfilled mother once, she experiences being disturbed and haunted by ‘the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children (Brooks)’ that tells of an appalling fact – a course of action taken to deprive someone of the right to live. Though ‘I have contracted’ and ‘I have eased’ in the passage allude that she has emerged out of this stage, the listener would feel the presence of tension in the calm tone, signifying how the process of overcoming a murderous deed is not without a sense of ordeal or knowledge of an accountability for a dreadful consequence after. From here, Brooks goes on to position herself exactly into the main character involved who eventually addresses her dead offspring as if to summon the attention of the ‘aborted’ to discern her situation and forgive her shortfall. It is a period of treating the ‘dead’ as potential listeners and no longer those abandoned lifeless fetuses who defenselessly yield to their irreversible fate. Their mother explains and demonstrates a trait of thoughtfulness, perceptive of what the innocent dead could have become or possessed given a future on the side of the living. ‘If I sinned, if I seized your luck.....Your straight baby tears and your games, your stilted or lovely loves, your tumult, your marriages, aches, and your deaths (Brooks)’ are all indicative of confessing a motherly nature of projecting expectations upon children who would come of age and pass each step toward maturity at their freewill, if allowed to see the world, breathe, and be nurtured in all aspects. Brooks continues to have ‘the mother’ avail of the solemn circumstances of conversing with the ‘unborn’ and at this point, the audience is made to receive her speech as a third person. Beyond the piece, the other woman is likely enabled to meditate on a similar weakness and frustration as a mother who fails to confront her responsibility and gives in to fear instead. The poet gradually clarifies to her ‘dead’ and ‘living’ listeners alike that despite the accomplished crime, the associated intentions are not hers by sole full consent, pleading ‘Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate (Brooks).’ Not only does it mean to impact women who cut off births, but it also applies to the mothers who let their sons and daughters live yet grant them with poor supplication and confidence in leading a supposedly healthy and improved lifestyle. Towards the end, the author claims that while she acknowledges her fault, there is another entity, human or amply valid reason that is partly to blame in justifying the bloody choice she has arrived at. But even in the absence of such driving force or external influence, she still admits that it upsets and concerns her just the same – ‘Since anyhow you are dead.’ Around this moment, Brooks expresses a certain shift in dimension, acquiring a confused encounter of rationalizing which is typical considering an individual who is unable to proceed giving birth due to life’s overwhelming depths of hardships and several other factors which bring about disillusionment and anxiety. Nevertheless, ‘Believe me, I loved you all (Brooks)’ contains the author’s judgment with utmost regard to the real substance of her heart. That is, the chief essence of an unblemished affectionate state of motherhood. ‘The Mother’ seems quite representative of a culture of women who resort to abortion due to failure in relationships and in particular, young impoverished ones who, prior to legal age, have been engaged in premarital sex or abusive sexual assault as through rape. Without access to proper wisdom to guide these young women to come up with a moral decision, in reality, poverty and youth would push them to extremes in trying to remedy conflicts with unexpected pregnancy. Most of them still are found to commit abortions if not suicide, on the attempt to be saved from disgrace and this normally occurs if the community of such person does not serve her sufficient assistance for the sake of attaining justice and preserving dignity. The poem offers an insight to women who might have gone through difficult times at overcoming the incident and forgiving themselves which keeps them from moving forward. Since ‘The Mother’ creates the needed attitude toward guilt and regret, it then teaches the guilty mother to never repeat the same mistake. To most, it might serve a lesson to learn and be transformed by wholeheartedly, however, to others whose case of unwanted pregnancy is led to unwillingness to bear the child, ‘The Mother’ functions as an excuse to feel that the criminal act of abortion is just an event that results from human weakness and this locates the risk of possibly misconceiving that it is no significantly different from an ordinary sin or misbehaviour which the society may find acceptable in the long run. As I see it, Brooks renders her work to be perceived in the light of getting the mother to look back and examine herself in relation to the past iniquities committed. Though she manages to set the right mood on feeling sorry about the past, the author addresses the issue from a liberal perspective by not stating that she could have done otherwise. I think the poem can be modified in a way as to exhibit solidarity in making amends and finding value in asking for forgiveness over a grave act that she wished could have been undone, as a mother with an overflowing sense of compassion to keep her offspring unharmed and not just the type who anticipates justice at being understood of severely falling short. Reference Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Mother.” Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15829 on 14 July 2011. Read More