Lucky and Benevolence Poems - Essay Example

In both poems, the words used are rude and cruel.

The poems are about parents who are weak to do their jobs by themselves. In Lucky, the mother does not refuse when someone is helping her out as she knows that she is not able to do that job herself since she is weak. The same thing is happening in the second poem Benevolence where the father is so weak that he can’t even talk properly. In both poems, the poet is speaking about the weaknesses and difficulties that the parents are facing because of their health. In the poems, they are describing their weaknesses and their behavior, and the way they changed.

The poem describes the position of the poet when his mother was dependent on him for everything since she was weak and “past the point of saying no”. The poet says that this was a good chance for him to help her out and take care of her like she took care of him when he was young. He describes how he prepared a bath for her and made it “just right” after which he lowered her in it and cleaned her with soap and water. The poet uses crude words in describing the experience and explains how his mother’s body was wasted and in a sorry state.

At nights when the poet used to be reading or working while his mother slept, he often noticed the sharp breaths she took in sleep instead of the smooth breathing characteristic of a normal healthy person. He listened to that sound and the thought that came to his mind was that he was lucky enough that he was now getting a chance to pay back what his mother had done for him in his younger years. He seems to be an egoistic person who cannot take anything from anyone, not even his mother. And therefore he thinks that taking care of his mother at this stage is going to repay all that she did for him previously. He thinks that he can pay his “heavy debt of punishment and love/ with love and punishment”.

Not only does the poet think about the love that his mother gave him, but also the punishments. And he sets upon to repay that as well. For instance, when he is lifting his mother from the bath and before setting her down in the wheelchair he holds her in the air, indirectly dominating her.

In the other poem, Benevolence, the poet is talking about his father. He has compared him to a dog in the way he breathes and barks. The father here as well is too weak and wasted to do anything by himself and therefore he depends upon his son. When he wants a drink he would not even be able to speak out but he would “utter one sharp bark and point the wet black arrow of his nose imperatively up at the bottle on the shelf”.

The poet feels powerful and dominant as his father is dependent upon him just like the way he was dependent upon his father once upon a time. He thinks that his father enjoyed that dominance and takes him negatively because of this he feels satisfied feeling of being able to control his father now.

It is very obvious that in both poems the poet is very much against his parents and wants to repay them for everything they did to him good or bad. He feels that they were his enemies and that whatever they did was for their benefit, pleasure, and satisfaction. He thinks they did him a favor by raising him and therefore he wishes to repay that by tang care of them at such a stage. He also thinks that the way they punished him for whatever was for their satisfaction and he pursues to repay that as well. Read More