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    Lefl 111

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    Oulfa
    The poem describes the poet's mother who is now sixty-six years old. As the poet drives her mother to the airport, she notices how old and frail her mother looks, with a pale face "like a corpse". This triggers memories from the poet's childhood and a familiar feeling of fear and pain. However, she puts on a smile and simply says "see you soon" to her mother, hiding her true feelings. The poem captures the poet coming to terms with her mother's aging in just a single sentence, with observations of the surrounding environment linked to her main thoughts about her mother.

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    Lefl 111

    Uploaded by

    Oulfa
    23 views3 pages
    The poem describes the poet's mother who is now sixty-six years old. As the poet drives her mother to the airport, she notices how old and frail her mother looks, with a pale face "like a corpse". This triggers memories from the poet's childhood and a familiar feeling of fear and pain. However, she puts on a smile and simply says "see you soon" to her mother, hiding her true feelings. The poem captures the poet coming to terms with her mother's aging in just a single sentence, with observations of the surrounding environment linked to her main thoughts about her mother.

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    lefl111

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    The poem describes the poet's mother who is now sixty-six years old. As the poet drives her mother to the airport, she notices how old and frail her mother looks, with a pale face "like a corpse". This triggers memories from the poet's childhood and a familiar feeling of fear and pain. However, she puts on a smile and simply says "see you soon" to her mother, hiding her true feelings. The poem captures the poet coming to terms with her mother's aging in just a single sentence, with observations of the surrounding environment linked to her main thoughts about her mother.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    23 views3 pages

    Lefl 111

    Uploaded by

    Oulfa
    The poem describes the poet's mother who is now sixty-six years old. As the poet drives her mother to the airport, she notices how old and frail her mother looks, with a pale face "like a corpse". This triggers memories from the poet's childhood and a familiar feeling of fear and pain. However, she puts on a smile and simply says "see you soon" to her mother, hiding her true feelings. The poem captures the poet coming to terms with her mother's aging in just a single sentence, with observations of the surrounding environment linked to her main thoughts about her mother.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    My Mother at Sixty-six

    Kamala Das

    An Elementary School
    Classroom in a Slum
    POETRY

    Stephen Spender

    Keeping Quiet
    Pablo Neruda

    A Thing of Beauty
    John Keats

    A Roadside Stand
    Robert Frost

    Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers


    Adrienne Rich

    2022-23
    1 My Mother at Sixty-six
    About the poet

    Kamala Das (1934-2009) was born in Malabar, Kerala.


    She is recognised as one of India’s foremost poets. Her
    works are known for their originality, versatility and
    the indigenous flavour of the soil. Kamala Das has
    published many novels and short stories in English and
    Malayalam under the name ‘Madhavikutty’. In addition
    to five books of poetry. She is a sensitive writer who
    captures the complex subtleties of human relationships
    in lyrical idiom, My Mother at Sixty-six is an example.

    Before you read


    Ageing is a natural process; have you ever thought what our
    elderly parents expect from us?

    Driving from my parent’s


    home to Cochin last Friday
    morning, I saw my mother,
    beside me,
    doze, open mouthed, her face
    ashen like that
    of a corpse and realised with
    pain
    that she was as old as she
    looked but soon
    put that thought away, and
    looked out at Young
    Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
    out of their homes, but after the airport’s
    security check, standing a few yards

    90/Flamingo

    2022-23
    away, I looked again at her, wan,
    pale
    as a late winter’s moon and felt that
    old
    familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
    but all I said was, see you soon,
    Amma,
    all I did was smile and smile and
    smile......

    sprinting : short fast race, running


    wan : colourless

    Think it out
    1. What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?
    2. Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?
    3. Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children
    ‘spilling out of their homes’?
    4. Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?
    5. What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?

    Notice that the whole poem is in a single sentence, punctuated


    by commas.
    It indicates a single thread of thought interspersed with
    observations of the real world around and the way these are
    connected to the main idea.

    My Mother at Sixty-six/91

    2022-23

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