Explain what the poem is about and how the poet conveys the emotions he feels.

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Refugee mother and her child by Chinua Achebe

Explain what the poem is about and how the poet conveys the emotions he feels.

The poem is about Achebe's encounter with a mother and child in a refugee camp. This mother was different from the other mothers as she still cherished and loved her son. The other mothers had already stopped caring for their children as survival was not the most important thing and there wasn't any hope of survival for their children anyway.

In line 9:

"Most mothers there had long ceased to care"

The poet's tone was varied, in the first stanza he used long, soft vowels such as the vowel 'o' and words such as 'tenderness'. In line 4, Achebe chose to used the word 'odour' instead of the word 'smell' or 'stench' because it sounded softer and more rounded. The softness continued until the beginning of line 5 where Achebe used hard-sounding words such as 'diarrhoea' and 'blown'. The fact that the child will die is hinted repeatedly. From line 7 to line 14 of the second stanza, he seemed to be admiring the mother's love for her child in even those circumstances. At the end, his tone was sad and regretful.
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In the last three lines:

"...like putting flowers on a tiny grave."

There was alliteration in line 5 of the second stanza:

"behind blown empty bellies"

The poet used the work "ghost" as a metaphor in lines 8 and 9 of the second stanza. In "ghost smile", he meant the softening of the mother's expression as she looked at her son. There was repetition of "ghost" and in "ghost of a mother's pride", it represented what the mother used to feel and here there was only the tiniest left of it. The last 2 ...

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