Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School

Std XII - English Core

Literature - Flamingo
P1 : My Mother at Sixty-six
Kamala Das

Reiteration : The tone of the poem oscillates between pessimism and optimism

Paraphrase:
On a Friday, the author was driving from her parents home to Cochin airport. The author
sees her mother beside her and describes her appearance as she sleeps. She describes her mother
to be sleepy, tired and exhausted and compares her sleep to that of a corpse that is ashen. The
author employs the poetic device 'Simile' in the poem to justify the aforementioned statement.
At this point, she realises with pain that her mother was as old as she looked but soon she put
that thought away as she wanted to get out of the pain and started looking at her surroundings.

The above paragraph highlights a pessimistic tone.

The poet looked outside of the moving car and was able to see the young trees that seemed to
be moving past with the speed of the car. They seemed to be running fast or sprinting. The author
also saw happy children who spilled out of their homes.
The author employs the poetic device 'Metaphor' in the poem relating to the 'Young Trees
sprinting' to emphasize the active life and 'the merry children spilling' to emphasize
spontaneous overflow of life.
The usage of metaphor in the above paragraph stands in total contrast to the poet's ageing
mother who is no more active and lacks energy.

The above paragraph highlights an optimistic tone.

After the airport's security check, the poet stood a few yards away to look at her mother
again and described her appearance to be colourless and pale. The poet employs the poetic
device 'Simile' to highlight the colourless / dull / pale / withered appearance of her mother to
that of a late winter's moon. The late winter's moon appears hazy and obscure, lacking
brightness and this is similar to the poet's mother's appearance.

The above paragraph highlights a pessimistic tone.

The poet says that the withered appearance of her mother reminded her of a familiar ache. The
familiar ache refers to her childhood fear of getting seperated from her mother.
But (the usage of 'but' here refers to how the poet tries to move away from the previous thoughts)
all she said was, she would see her amma soon and smiled and smiled and smiled.
The poet employs the poetic device 'Repetition' to highlight the shift in tone from negative to
positive. This also signifies that the poet is trying to overcome the ache, put up a brave front and
embrace the time with her mother.