My Mother At Sixty Six [Class XII]

ü  The poet is returning home after a visit to mother. She is driving to Cochin to catch a flight back home and her mother come to see her off.

ü  ‘Beside’:- by my side, besides: - in addition to

ü  Open mouthed: - Her mother lacks vitality. She is old and therefore has no control over her reflexes. Hence, her mouth opens up as she dozes.

ü  ‘Her face …….corpse.’

ü  Simile:     Ashen- Pale, colorless, dull, lifeless.     ---- The face of the mother is compared to the face of a corpse (a dead body).

ü  The poet is pained at the ‘realization that her mother is ageing and inching close to death’.

§  The poet doesn’t want to confront the thought of losing her mother. So, she evades it, she starts looking out of the window and focuses her attention on happier images of –                                              (a) Young trees sprinting –

·         Sprinting:- Running fast / whizzing fast

·         Trees symbolize youth, growth life.

·         They contrast to the images of death and lifelines presented by the mother.

(b)Merry children spilling out of their homes

·         Children – symbolize happiness, energy, life – contrast again to the duel, lifeless mother.

·         Figure of speech metaphor        

·         Children rush/spill out just like a liquid spill.

ü  But after the security check at the airport, the poet is forced to look at her mother again to bid a final goodbye. She can’t escape the reality that her mother is ageing.

ü  A late winter’s moon is foggy and misty and withers away soon. It also symbolizes death. The poet compares her mother to the late winter’s moon to convey her frail health, old age & approaching death.

ü  Just like a late winter’s moon loses its radiance to fog and mist, the poet’s mother also loses her vitality due to old age and ill health. Also the mother is inching dose to death. So the poet has made this comparison