Mothers

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1972

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Time and Memory

Time and memory lend the poem “Mothers” a way to travel from adulthood to childhood and back again, without asking the reader to suspend their own beliefs in order to coherently follow along. The poem begins, “the last time i was home” (Line 1), which is unspecific. However, by the end of the first stanza the reader understands that the speaker and the mother she is visiting are both adults, able to enjoy a “comforting silence” (Line 5) in one another’s company.

The second stanza delves deeper into memory to “remember the first time” (Line 7) the speaker really sees her mother. It is nighttime. Again, details are scarce, but the reader can surmise that the speaker is traveling back to early childhood, as maybe she “had wet / the bed” (Lines 15-16)—an action typically confined to very young children.

The mother teaches her child “a poem” (Line 32) from memory. The reader travels forward in time, back to adulthood and to the speaker’s own motherhood, wherein the speaker’s child recites the poem from memory to his grandmother. Through this snippet of art, the three generations are connected. The last leap forward gives the impression that time is fleeting. The speaker reminds the reader that people have a responsibility to recognize and acknowledge the joys of life as well as its burdens.

Darkness/Blackness

Darkness appears in the third stanza of “Mothers” as the reader learns “mommy always sat in the dark” (Line 11). There is a suggestion of light in the first stanza, if the reader makes the leap that the speaker and her mother need light to “read separate books” (Line 6)—but even then, the reader is apt to imagine an artificial source, such as a lightbulb in a reading lamp.

Light makes a more discernible entrance in the kitchen, where “the room was bathed in moonlight” (Line 18). There are windows, diffuse with moonlight, but also obscured by a dense pattern of “those thousands of panes” (Line 19). This is not a bright space, but a space for shadows, and for waiting in the company of the moon.

Darkness forcefully returns in the description of the mother’s long, “very black” (Line 24) hair. This black is not a shadowy black, but a black full of distinct beauty and immense power. The speaker gives one more nod to the dark hour by mentioning the father’s “night job” (Line 29), before bringing the reader’s attention back to the moon—bright enough to see and be seen.

Dreams

The image and feeling of a dream is suggested in “Mothers” before it is named. As a child, the speaker says, “i don’t know how I knew that but she did” (Line 12), referencing her knowledge that her mother habitually “sat in the dark” (Line 11). This introduces a kind of dream state to the poem, echoed in “that night I stumbled into the kitchen” (Line 13), when the speaker is not fully awake. Whether or not the mother was actually smoking, there is a sense of smokiness or fog in the air. The mother’s long, dark hair stands out for the speaker, not unlike symbolism in a dream.

Toward the end of the poem, the speaker tells the reader it’s possible her mother was waiting “for a dream / that had promised to come by” (Lines 29-30). The speaker takes the reader from a dreamy scenario to the idea that her mother may have very real aspirations—dreams—that have not yet, and might not ever, manifest.