Critical Analysis- Praise Song for my Mother by Grace Nichols

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This poem is a lyrical ballad written with a simple rhyme scheme of a-b-c. ab-c.

The poem, as the name suggests is a song where the poet is rejoicing her relationship with her mother by making use of simple but powerful imagery. It is important to note that unlike the commemorative poems that are usually written by Western writers, "Praise for My Mother" does not have a requiem like elegiac mood. The overall tone of the poem is pleasant.

"Praise Song" is a panegyric on the writer's mother. in which she celebrates a woman who gave her both roots to grow from and wings to fly with. Writing about her own mother, Nichols once commented that she was a '... warm, intelligent, loving woman who was full of stories, anecdotes and songs from her own childhood. People loved being around her and I can't remember a single day when our home wasn't visited by some friend, neighbour or relative who had dropped in "just fuh [sic] minute" but ended up staying hours.'

Starting with the vocabulary, it is vivid but hard-hitting. The writer uses the images of water, moon and sun- all powerful symbols of nature, to