MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX

Ageing and the bond between a mother and her child are the themes in the poetry “My Mother at Sixty-Six” from
the Class 12 English Flamingo textbook. The poem reflects on their strong bond and affection while describing the
speaker’s observations of their mother’s physical and emotional changes as she ages. This is a touching poem written
by Indian poet Kamla Das who wrote under the pen name of ‘Madhavikutty’. In this poem, she describes her feeling
of love and attachment towards her ageing mother. Once the poet went to visit her mother. She was on her way
back to the airport to return to Cochin. She looked at her mother who was seated beside her in the car. Her mother
had dozed off to sleep and her ageing face – was smoky in colour like ash. Her mouth was open and she resembled a
dead body. The poet realized that her mother was old. She felt pain and sympathy for her. Her mother needed love,
affection and care.
In order to come out of the gloom, the poet shifted her glance and looked out of the car’s window. There she saw
young trees pass by. Little children were running out of their houses into the playgrounds. These things were
contrary to the ageing face of her mother. They symbolised energy, life and happiness. As they reached the airport
and the poet was about to leave for the aeroplane, she glanced at her mother one more time. Her mother appeared
weak and pale just like the moon in the winter season which seems to have lost all its strength. The poet felt the pain
and fear of losing her mother. She was reminded of her childhood when she used to fear losing her mother. As a
child she could not bear to be separated from her mother even for a few moments. Now the loss would be
permanent as her mother was about to die and she would lose her forever.

“Driving from my parents 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”
Where was the poet driving to? Who was sitting beside her?
The poet was driving from her parent’s home to the Cochin airport. Her Sixty Six year old mother was sitting beside
her.
What did the poet notice about her mother?
She noticed that her mother was dozing with her mouth open. Her face appeared ashen just like a corpse.
Why was her mother’s face looked like that of a corpse?
Her mother’s face looked pale, faded and lifeless like a dead body because she had grown old.
Find words from the passage which mean :
(i) sleep lightly (ii) dead body (iii) felt. (i) doze (ii) corpse (iii) realised.

…………..She
looked but soon
put that thought away, and
looked out at Young
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes,

(a)What did the poet realise? How did she feel?

When the poet looked at her mother’s pale and pallid face, she is struck with the horror and pain of losing her. She
realized her mother is ageing and will one day die. She felt a deep pain and immediately avoided her sorrowful
thoughts by distracting her mind to the youthful trees and the children outside.

(b) What did she do then?

The poet is pained and shifts her attention outside the car in order to drive out the negative feelings. She changes her
sad mood. The scene outside the window is of growing life and energy. The rapidly sprinting trees alongside the
merrily playing children symbolize life, youth and vitality.

(c)What did she notice in the world outside?

She noticed the young trees that appeared to be sprinting as her car drove by. She also noted the happy young
children spilling out of their homes.

(d)Find words from the passage which mean: (ii) running fast (ii) happy (iii) moving out.
(i) sprinting (ii) merry (iii) spilling.
What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?

When the poet looks at her mother’s face closely, she discovers that she has aged and her end is near. The feeling of
her mother being old, needing care and help pains her. She feels that her mother can die any moment and that then
she will lose her forever. Her childhood fear of losing her mother which was then timely but now, will be forever,
resurfaces. The poet feels the pain of her mother’s old age and her helplessness towards her. She has the fear of
separating from her mother forever, upon her death.

Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?

The young trees have been personified. When looked at from the poet’s moving car, they seem to be running past.
The poet found it to be strikingly opposite to her mother who looked as still as a dead body.

Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’?

When the poet saw her mothers pale, ashen face that seemed like a corpse she felt an immediate painful realization
that her other had grown old. The thought of ageing brought out her fear the inevitability of death. As the realization
was fearful, she immediately tried to distract her thoughts by looking outside the car at merry and cheerful things
such as trees and children. By distracting her thoughts to ‘merry children spilling out of their home’ she is trying to
cope with her inner fears of losing her mother forever.

Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?

The poet uses the simile of “the late winters moon” to indicate her mothers old age and approaching death. With
the growing age, the poets mother has started losing her vitality and radiance. She is weak, pale and her face looks
ashen like a cop. Winter, being the last season of the year, is synonymous with cold, pallor and lifelessness. The late
winter moon is dull, hazy and with lost luster just like the old mother who having lost her strength and beauty looks
wan and pale.

… 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......
What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?

The parting words of the poet “see you soon amma” show her positive attitude. She overcomes her pain and fear,
assures herself and her mother that they would meet again. These words signify her farewell to her mother as well
as an optimism and hope to meet her again. She is restructuring her thoughts putting away her subconscious fears of
dying and creating the faith of seeing her mother again alive when she visits the next time. She is being very brave
which is indicated by the use of repetition in the poem: “smile and smile and smile……”

Question 1. Mention any one instance of metaphor used in the poem.

A. face ashen (colour of the face is similar to the colour of ash)

Question 2. Which word means sleeping?

A. Doze

Question 3. State true or False

The trees were not sprinting
A. True

Question 4. What is yard?

a. Unit of measuring time
b. Unit of measuring distance
c. Unit of measuring weight
d. Unit of measuring speed
A. b
Question 5. Which figure of speech is used in the last line?
A. Repetition (to emphasize)
Question 6. Mention the instances of imagery.
A. Young trees sprinting
Merry children spilling out of their homes

Question 7. Which of the following figures of speech can be seen throughout the poem?
a. Personification
b. Enjambment
c. Rhyme
d. Repetition
A. b
Question 8. What is the theme of the poem?
a. Aging
b. Nostalgia
c. loss and separation
d. All of these
A. d
Question 9. The poet was going to Cochin by ____
a. Car
b. Train
c. aeroplane
d. Can’t say
A. c
Question 10. What was the poet’s childhood fear?
A. Her childhood fear was the fear of getting separated from her mother.

Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children spilling out of their homes ?

The little children are full of life, hope and cheerfulness. They have just begun life and have a long way to go. The old
and weak mother of the poetess, however, is fast losing hold on life. She could breath her last any day in near future.
The image of cheerful children makes the sight of the mother all the more painful.
Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’ ?

The old mother is pale and cheerless. The moon also in late winter loses its shine or brightness. So she has been
compared to the winter’s moon.
What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify ?

The poetess is taking leave of her mother. She is going to fly to some distant place. She is not sure of meeting the old
lady again. But she hides her fears, smiles and assures mother that they would meet again.
How does Kamala Das try to put away the thoughts of her ageing mother?

Kamala Das finds it hard to accept the fact of her mother growing old, as it brings back to her mind her childhood
fear of losing her mother. She makes a deliberate effort to drive or put away such thoughts by looking outside the
car at the sights passing by.
What was the poet’s childhood fear?
Or
What were the poet’s feelings at the airport? How did she hide them?
Or
What were Kamala Das’ fears as a child? Why do they come back when she is going to the airport?
During her childhood, Kamala Das was insecure about losing her mother just as all young children often are. The
same old feelings come back to haunt her when she sees her mother’s pale and lifeless face. She is tortured by the
fact that she may not see her alive again. She hides her feelings by smiling.
What do the parting words of Kamala Das and her smile signify?

The parting words of the poet reflect the poet’s feeling that she wants to meet her mother again. But she wears a
smile on her face to mask her pain and to give hope, happiness and reassurance to her mother.
What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?
The poet’s parting words, ‘See you soon, Amma’, signify hope and assurance, not only to her but to her mother also,
that they will meet again.
Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children Spilling out of their homes?
Answer:
The poet has used this imagery to bring out the contrast between children, who ard’ energetic and full of life, and
her mother, who is old, pale and lifeless.
What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?
Answer:
The poet is pained to see her mother’s dull and colorless face. She is hurt to see that her mother’s face looks like
that of a dead body. She is afraid of the fact that she may not see her alive next time.
geing is a natural process; have you ever thought what our elderly parents expect from us?
Answer:
Aged people usually undergo pangs of loneliness and need companionship. They long only for our love, care and
attention. They expect their children to share the happenings in their lives with them and take their suggestions for
making significant decisions. This will encourage them to live life enthusiastically.
Question 10.
Give the sum and substance of the Kamala Das’s poem My Mother at Sixty Six.
Answer:
The mother of the poetess is not yet very old. She is sixty-six. But some how because of illness or so, she looks pale
and ash-coloured like a dead body. The poetess is in a hurry to catch her flight. She is deeply concerned about the
aged woman. She can’t be sure to find her alive on her next visit. She looks out of the car at the young trees children.
By contrast, the sight of the mother looks critical. She casts a last look a at the airport. In order to cheer up the old
mother, she smiles and smiles to hide her own n -s and promises to see the old woman again.

All I did was smile and smile and smile. Why does the poetess repeat the word smile thrice ?
Answer:
The smile of the poetess at the time of parting from her emanciated mother only hides her tears. She is not certain
of meeting the old woman again. The mother is already ash-coloured like a dead body.
Question 12.
What is the significance of the parting word of the poet and her smile, in “My mother at Sixty-six?” ?
Answer:
Question 1:
Bring out the significance of the smile of the poet as she bade farewell to her mother.
Answer:
The poet smiles as she bids farewell to her mother and assures her that they would meet again. As she looks at her
mother, who looks pale and weak due to old age, her heart is pained to think that her mother might not live long.
She smiles, but her smile is only an effort to cover up the hidden fear and pain in her heart.
It is a smile put on deliberately to hide her tears. Her situation is quite ironical. Though she tells her mother that
she’ll see her soon, she doubts if she will ever see her alive again. The repetition of the word ‘smile’ shows that it is a
long and cheerful one. The smile is also significant because it must have comforted both the mother and the
daughter and kindled in them the hope that the mother would survive long enough for the two to meet again.
Bring out the poetic devices used in the poem.
Answer:
The poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’ captures the complex subtleties of human relationships in a texture of symbols,
imagery and other poetic devices.
The entire poem is structured in the frame of a single sentence, punctuated by commas. It indicates a single string of
thought that runs throughout. There is a simile in the explicit comparison of the ashen face of her mother to that of
a corpse. We find another simile in the comparison between the pale visage of her mother and the late winter’s
moon, as her face has lost its brightness.
There is the use of personification in the line “Trees sprinting’, where trees are attributed with the quality of running
swiftly, for enhancing the poetic effect. The poet has used alliteration in the use of the words ‘familiar’ and ‘fear’
with the repetition of the consonant sound |f|. It also suggests the poet’s familiarity with her childhood fear and the
sorrow of losing her mother to death.
Analyse the concept of losing our dear ones on account of old age in the context of the poem.
Answer:
The poem ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’ brings out the natural complexities of the human mind and the natural fear of
losing our parents, which is common to the hearts of all humans. Ageing is an indispensable part of human life which
we have to accept, irrespective of the pain it cultivates in our hearts. The poet speaks about her mother who is
growing old and has a pale and weak face.
Her mother sleeps while travelling, as we realize that she requires rest. The poet recalls how even as a child she has
experienced the fear of losing her mother. Now her fear has changed into the fear of losing her mother to death. Her
attention is arrested by her mother’s failing health and yet she smiles, only with the hope of meeting her soon.
LITERARY DEVICES

A figure of speech in which consonants at the

familiar ache, my
Alliteration beginning of words or stressed syllables are
childhood’s fear
repeated.
Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last
A repetition of similar vowel sounds usually
Friday • morning, I saw
Assonance close together to achieve the effect of being
my mother, beside me, •
pleasing to the ear is called assonance.
doze, open mouthed, her
face ashen like that
The attribution of human qualities to
Personification Young Trees sprinting
inanimate objects is called personification
A repetition of sounds, words, phrases or all I did was smile, smile
Repetition
stanzas that create a certain effect. and smile.
A figure of speech in which one thing is
I looked again at her, wan,
likened to another to clarify and enhance an
Simile pale as a late winter’s
image. It is an explicit comparison using works
moon
‘like’ and ‘as’.
(a) ‘a late winter’s moon’ is
A symbol is an object, animate or inanimate, a symbol of death (b)
Symbol
which represents or stands for something else ‘merry children’ are a
symbol of youth and life
Metaphor is a comparison between two things face ashen (colour of the
that are otherwise unrelated. With metaphor, face is similar to the colour
Metaphor
the qualities of one thing are figuratively of ash)
carried over to another. late winter’s moon
Young trees sprinting
the author's use of description and vivid
Merry children spilling out
language, deepening the reader's
Imagery of their homes
understanding of the work, by appealing to
the senses.
a poetic term for the continuation of a
sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to
the next. An enjambed line typically lacks Used throughout the
Enjambment
punctuation at its line break, so the reader is poem
carried smoothly and swiftly—without
interruption—to the next line of the poem.