My Mother At Sixty Six Explanation Class 12

My Mother At Sixty Six Explanation Class 12 is available with poetic devices used in the poem ‘My Mother At Sixty Six.. Check the Table of Contents given below for better navigation…

My Mother At Sixty Six Explanation

My Mother At Sixty Six EXPLANATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT

My Mother At Sixty Six Explanation-

STANZA 1

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,

Reference:-

These lines have been taken from the poem “My Mother At Sixty Six”, written by Kamala Das, a leading Indo-Anglian poet. 

Context:- 

While travelling from her parents’ home to  Cochin, the poet sadly looks at her aged mother’s wrinkled and colourless face. She realised that her old age now was reflected on her face.

Explanation:- 

The poet’s visit to her old mother has come to an end and she has to go back to her home-town. She is driving to the Cochin airport to take a flight and her sixty-six-year-old mother accompanies her to see her off. On the way, the mother dozes off and the poet looks at her mother intensely. Her mother’s face was open and lifeless like a dead body.

She realises that her mother is aging and this brings with it the painful thought of losing her. The poet tries to dismiss that thought and to distract her attention, she looks outside the car. Unable to gaze at her mother’s pale and lifeless face for long, she looks out and finds trees whizzing past her and young bright children rushing out of their homes.

My Mother At Sixty Six Explanation-

STANZA 2

but after the airport’s
security check, standing a few yards
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......

Reference:-

These lines have been taken from the poem “My Mother At Sixty Six”, written by Kamala Das, a leading Indo-Anglian poet. 

Context –

Now, the poet is at the airport, where she once again looks closely at her mother and bids her goodbye with a smile, willing to put away her fears of losing her.

Explanation:-

When the poet reaches the airport and the security check is done, she realises that the time for separation has come. The moments of togetherness are ending. She again glances at her mother’s face which is pale and colourless like a late winter’s moon. During winters the moon is hazy and unclear.

The poet’s childhood fears of losing her mother resurface and she feels bad to separate from her mother. But she has to continue her journey, she has commitments, so she has to move on. However, she did not wish to give her mother an inkling of her feelings. She hides her feelings behind a brave smile and bids goodbye to her mother. She is not sure whether she will see her mother in the future but hopes she will. So she proceeds towards her destination.

POETIC DEVICES of the Poem ‘My Mother At Sixty Six’

Here we have discussed some poetic Devices used in the poem ‘My Mother At Sixty Six’, take a look and study them by heart.

(A) Simile:- 

It is a comparison between two unlike objects, usually using “like” or “as”.

Examples:–

1. “ her face ashen like that of a corpse”  The face of the poet’s mother was very lifeless and dull. Since she looked very lifeless, her face looked like a dead body.

2. “ wan, pale as a late winter’s moon.”  During winter, the moon appears very late and it is rather hazy and dull in appearance. Similarly the mother’s face is also lifeless like a pale moon. Moreover, the moon makes an appearance late at night and the poet’s mother is also in her “late years”. Winter also symbolises death. The mother’s weak and emaciated (दुर्बल) condition is a sign of her approaching end.

(B) Images and Symbols:-

Examples:-

1. “trees sprinting and merry children”: symbolise youth, life, activity
2. winter’s moon: symbolises dullness, listlessness, inactivity (death)

(C) Repetition:

The poet often repeats words or phrases to create effect, to highlight a point or to draw the reader’s notice. thought away thought away

The first “thought” is to express a chain of thoughts or ideas that are cropping up in her mind. The second “thought” is used as a noun to refer to the poet’s thinking of her mother’s death.  

Examples:-

1. “smile and smile and smile”

This repetition reinforces the smile that is not genuine, it is a pretension¹. The poet wishes to hide her worries so she goes on smiling and smiling.

(D) STRUCTURE / RHYME SCHEME

The entire poem is written as a simple sentence that starts from the mother’s home till the time the poet reaches the airport’s security check. It has no rhyme scheme. It is written in free verse.

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1. pretension.( बहाना) ↩︎