Analysis of "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks

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Analysis a Poem.

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Mother

The poem is about a lady prostitute, “The Mother” who due to the character of her work has had multiple abortions. Gwendolyn has wrote about the conventional lady of the night, Theses night lady’s often passed “The Mother” house when she was a teenager, looking back on reflection she found this attractive. Now she is much older and she understands the dangers and pain with the role. You can clearly see from her poem it’s from the heart, but she appears to write it for another lady, this lady had several abortions, we know this because this is how the poem starts. Line one and two “Abortions will not let you forget. “You remember the children you got, that you did not get”. It’s a very powerful sentiment start to the poem, these are whole-hearted words. Gwendoline is a writer and you can feel the torture and sadness of “The Mother” she writes about. Or is it in reality herself she is aiming the poem at. This poem is aimed at a prostitute and the prostitutes’ feelings, the loss of her children that were aborted, the way they were treated. But most prominently of all it gives you a perception into, how these ladies survived through life, how she lived in a poverty deprived city, she had no choice due to circumstances beyond her control. But despite her lifestyle, these babies she loved and cherished with all her heart. The poem quite clearly shows the repentance, “The Mother” is feeling, maybe now she is older, wiser or even alone.

The words are sensed with such desire, with the first and second line of the poem, she is revealing how hysterical she is at aborting her babies. But it shows too how unconditionally she loved them, how much she dreamed of giving them a normal cherished life. It’s plain to see “The Mother” chose to abort more than once, maybe several as she refers to (children) rather than child. It can only assume that an early abortion was not an option, given the time and era I would assume that men would pay more for a pregnant prostitute. So it is obvious to see, the more she was in late stage pregnancy, the higher the price men would pay. The next part of the poem, line twenty six, twenty seven and twenty nine, reads “you were never made” ”but that too I am afraid” “you were born you had a body you died” . This sends a strong message of how far pregnant she actually was, she was far pasts the legal abortion stage, so it could actually be said, no doctor or hospital would legally operate an abortion. So one can only assume she had the only option of a back door doctor, who unlawfully performed abortions. This would be very precarious for the baby, but her herself. Lines twenty two and twenty three state this unquestionably, “though why should I whine” “whine that the crime, was other than mine”. This poem echoes her absolute

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Despair, she is suffering anguish, she describes how her prostitution, babies and life as she knew it still plagues each memory she has. You can see this in each and every line of the poem, she is still clearly disturbed by her past life and what she did and her children. She writes “I have heard voices of the wind the voices of the Dim” (children). To me the poem voices so much emotion, love and pain, but more so anger and regret. She uses the word “Dim” rather than abortion, Gwendoline describes the lady as soft and kind, she does this by writing “you will never neglect or beat them”. The poem free flows it’s easy to understand, and the emotion is so painfully. Although the poem is called the mother” she was never actually a “mother”, she was a prostitute, who never actually gave birth, but this lady loved these children unconditionally, that had never been born. Gwendoline writes with such empathy and passion, and at first I thought she was writing for herself, it is an exceptional piece of writing and I don’t think anybody could read this and, not have their heart ripped open. The lady she writes about she is far from, a bad lady all you can see is “good” in the poem, she has so much regret, and so much love for her children. She accepts accountability for her actions, and deeply regrets her decisions she made in her life. What I find truly remarkable about this poem is the realism and imagination that has you gripped from the very first word to the last. The lady in this poem portrays herself as a "Mother", yet it is visible through the lines of the poem that she was never actually a "Mother”.

She floats into reality and imagination of motherhood, and what would have been. She speaks as a “Mother” with sheer admiration for all her children. She shows so much remorse for the sordid acts her life gave her, nevertheless no matter how life came crashing around her she speaks as a “mother” of her unrequited love and passion for each and every one of her “unborn children”. The line “Abortions will not let you forget”, this sends a very strong message that this “Mother” has never disregarded what she did to her children. She lives each and every day with the deepest and darkest remorse, line 6 and 7 “you will never neglect or beat them”, “them, or silenced them with sweets. If we look deeper into this line, it seems that maybe she was beaten as a child and bought with sweets, to silence what she saw. Line 11 illustrates how she could not bring herself, to say she had killed her children” I have heard the voices of my dim killed children” dim is used as her denial as to her abortion. It’s hard to put into context what stage of her life she is at in this poem, she imagines the lost children still exist , she envisages herself giving birth, she visualizes feeding them all through her breast, even hearing her children’s voices. Yet none of these children ever survived the abortion, not one cry was ever heard, line 20 clearly tells us she knows only too well if all the children had been born, their beautiful life’s would have been ruined “ if I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths”.

“The Mother” poem is written in free verse, it flows and is easy to read and understand. It is ultimately about the mourning of “A Mother “who has lost her children this poem shows the deep desire she has, to only want the best for her children. Throughout the poem from the first to the last we can unmistakeably see, what fate her and her children would have had, had they lived. This poem gives the readers exceptional understanding into the 1940s era, were a world of lifestyles, poverty and secrets were the everyday “norm” this is the era, were abortions were a “Crimes” and it was seen as a “Sin” to abort a child. Prostitution was an everyday occurrence, due again to lack of money in these impoverished times and there was no contraception in this era. The writing of the poem is impeccable as if Gwendolyn writes for herself in fact I actually do believe “the mother” is Gwendolyn, it is clear to see that only a person who has been through this, could write with such emotion and sentiment. This poem is wrote from the heart, and as a reader it pulls at each and every emotion, especially if you are a women. The poem is about a “mother “who grieves for her aborted children, yet this woman never actually ever felt the pain of childbirth, she never touched 10 fingers and toes, and she never caressed their hair. She tells us vividly of her babies in her womb, how she hears their tiny cries. In line 20 to 33, she talks willingly to her children, she tells them how much she loves them, and how much she longed for each and every one of them to survive. She also gives in detail how, she was not “deliberate” and how she sees them as “never made”, she is and will always live with the guilt and pain of the abortion. No matter how she visions it in her memory, this poem is so full of prevailing emotions “The Mother “is feeling and always will feel loss, sorrow, love, and also anger but the deepest sentiment is the guilt. The guilt that explodes her heart into a million pieces, she torture’s herself relentlessly with the deaths of these children. Each and every day for the rest of her lifetime, she will hear her babies cry, she will imagine there birth, she will imagine them getting married, she will be left with anger, frustration and heartache.

She never chose her life, it was a life many people suffered it’s the era of poverty it was an era were women did not bore children out of wedlock, according to the church and god abortion was a dreadful despicable word. Who knows how the back street abortions affected her, or her health she was wide open to infection and even death. The people of this time looked down on people like “The Mother” she was no better than the dirt on their shoes, she would be known as a whore due to the work she did. But it’s the only life she knew, and she knew with all her heart, that the decision was right to abort the children. She didn’t want them having a life like hers, too live like she did, she knew in her decision no matter how heart wrenching it was, she made the choice to abort so her children could be saved from the dark and dangerous world that awaited them. The ending of the poem it shows us the person “The Mother” really was it reads “believe me, I loved you all. “Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you”. “All”. She telling her children that despite everything, whilst she was pregnant she made bonds with these children, she cradled her belly, she spoke to them and soothed just a normal mother would, she could have named each one of them. The last word is “All” she knew it was “All” her fault and she never denies this, her life added to the abortion decision, she loved them” All” each and every one of them. All is, “HER ALL” which were her children, and even though they didn’t survive the abortion they lived on in her memory forever. She was a mother right up until that fateful day, when her children were taken from her, and I really do think that with each child’s death a piece of “The Mother” died too.