Praise Song For My Mother Flashcards
Praise Song For My Mother
Grace Nichols
Praise Song
Is an oral African tradition, where celebration of life is given through the form of a song, as opposed to typical Western Eulogy
“You were”
The refrain of the phrase “You were” proves the lyrical quality, as it opens up each stanza
In terms of form, such repetition also highlights the constancy as an influence in Nichols’ life
“-ing”
The end-rhyme of the present participle, none finite verbs, which connects the poem’s four longer stanzas, further presents this mother/daughter relationship where her mother’s actions provided maternal protection and nurture
Themes of nature
Used metaphorically where the sun and moon represent this maternal influence and constancy
Stanza one
Presents the element of water, the essential element of life to demonstrate her mother’s importance
“You were…
to me”
Relationship at the very heart of it
“You were” Elegiac from the start
“Water to me”
Here, water suggests a kind of positive immersion, prehaps like baptism, but there is also a sense of the child respecting the adult whose depths cannot quite ‘fathom’
Also can be linked with amniotic fluid
Language
Very simple and a child like construct of listing her mother’s qualities in triple form, using the simple connective ‘and’
Shows the importance and raw nature of the emotions at hand
Form
The trochaic metre closing the third line of each perhaps convey the rhymes quality of her early life in Guyana where her mother was such a powerful presence
Repetitions throughout are reminds to us that the poem is written as a song and perhaps could also be linked to re-creating the rhythms of a mother singing a lullaby to comfort a child
“Moon’s eye to me”
Over seeing, a protective presence
“Pull and grained and mantling”
Pull creates a link between the mother’s influence and the gravitational ‘pull’ of the moon, which suggest both the natural force of her mother but also a form of restraint and this is a first indication of tension
‘Mantling’ suggest a warmth and blanketing
“Sunrise to me
rise and warm and streaming”
By referring to her as the Moon and the Sun, she becomes a contrast image alway there
Sunrise draws connotations with warmth, which in turn suggests comfort and protection
Stanza 4
Change from tercet to quatrain
Allows for more detail
Deeper fonder memories
“The ..
The …
The …”
Nichols uses the definite articles to provide specific examples. This makes the tone seem more emphatic as if the poem is building to a climax and the detail is getting richer and more precise.
