Poetry Analysis: Mother, Father, and Nature’s Resilience

Praise Song for My Mother

“Water” — metaphor: basic need for survival; her mother was essential and surrounded her life
“Moon’s” — a sacred image; symbol of her mother (gentle in nature, caring and motherly)
“Sunrise” — her mother was there at the start of every new day
“The fishes’ red gill” — a fish’s gill is vital for survival; in this way, her mother was someone she always depended on
“The flame tree’s” — gave her shelter and protection, also symbolizes life and growth
“The crab’s leg/The fried plantain smell” — her mother provided her with food and nourishment, creates a homely mood.

“Heart” and “spoken” — personification (reserved/detached person)
“Tall tower” — metaphor = life
“The tall tower” — alliteration on ‘t’ to exaggerate the length of life
“Flowering cherry tree” — represents spring (coming to life)
“On his walking shoulder held” — metaphor = showing that he is a man carrying all his problems
“Under the lion sun” — representing summer or time for growth and development
“Burning glass” — shows that he can no longer see nor hear, everything is in his mind, memories.
“Boughs of heaven folding” represents autumn
“Water spoke” and “heart was unafraid” — personification, essential for life

“Great” and “grate” — homophone
“Grate”, “swish”, “crash”, “rustle” — onomatopoeia, auditory vivid picture of trees
List of all parts of tree being destroyed: “branches”, “trunks”, “leaves”
“Spring” — imagery of spring/renewal (contrasts with the destruction of the trees)
“Fine grey rain” — pathetic fallacy, reflects the mood
“Dead rat” — is linked in her to the destruction of the trees
“Whispering loveliness” — personification, beautiful image
“Struck” — violent imagery
“Sun” and “rains” — contrast
“Wind” and “breeze” — contrast
“Quiet rain” — pathetic fallacy, mood. The trees are dying slowly, painfully, lonely
“They were lying” — personification, resting peacefully
“Angel”, “hurt not the trees” — reminds the reader of quote from ‘Revelation’ (religious imagery)

“Leaf” and “grief” — contrasts the two distinct connotations of positivity and pessimism
“Leaf” — symbol of life (positive, hopeful connotation)
“Relax” and “spread” — personification, trees = humans (compares their stage of youth to humans entering of a new stage in life)
“The recent buds relax and spread” — sibilance (‘s’) evokes the sound of rustling tree leaves (life and youth)
“Greenness” and “grief” — alliteration (‘e’) associates a color with an emotion (shifts the tone from optimism to pessimism)
“Born again” — fresh renewal
“Born again” and “grow old” — contrast between youth and age
“Trick” — connotes superficial appearance
“Yet still” — implies a change of tone, from pessimistic to positive
“Unresting castles” — metaphor: to create an image of masculine, firm trees like castle turrets
“Full-grown thickness” — image to suggest new tone of distant admiration towards the trees
“Seem to say” — personification: alive with speech effect of aliveness and joviality
“Afresh, afresh, afresh” — repetition and onomatopoeia: notion of continuity — signifying life = image of nature and hope imagery = symbolic of the trees’ continuous unwavering life and renewal