PLENTY – By Isobel Dixon (African Poem)

When I was young and there were five of us,

All running riot to my mother’s quiet despair,hyperbole, alliteration
Our old enamel tub, age-stained and pocked leaving stanza 4 all are enjambment
Upon its griffin claws, was never full.water in the poem symbolizes love and comfort
pocked – having holes
1. griffin - a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion,
typically depicted with pointed ears and with the eagle's legs taking the place of the forelegs.

Such plenty was too dear in our expanse of drought alliteration

Where dams leaked dry and windmills stalled. Assonance
Like Mommy’s smile. Her lips stretched back simile
And anchored down, in anger at some fault –assonance

stalled – stopped running

Of mine, I thought – not knowing then

It was a clasp to keep us all from chaos.alliteration, hyperbole (clasp)
She saw it always, snapping locks and straps,assonance
The spilling:sums and worries,shopping listsassonance
clasp –grasp
snapping – with a sharp cracking sound

For aspirin, porridge, petrol, bread. Alliteration

Even the toilet paper counted,
And each month was weeks too long. Oxymoron
Her mouth a lid clamped hard on this. hyperbole

We thought her mean. Skipped chores,

Swiped biscuits – best of all alliteration
When she was out of earshot
Stole another precious inch

Up to our chests, such lovely sin, alliteration

Lolling luxuriant in secret warmth
Disgorged from fatbrass taps, assonance
Our old compliant co-conspirators.assonance
lolling – standing or lying in a lazy way
disgorged – pour something out

Now bubbles lap my chin. I am a sybarite.

The shower’s a hot cascade
And water’s plentiful, to excess, almost, here.
I leave the heating on.assonance
Sybarite - self-indulgent in one owns pleasure

And miss myscattered sisters,alliteration, assonance

All those bathroom squabbles and, at last,assonance
My mother’s smile, loosed from the bonds
Of lean, dry times and our long childhood.
squabbles – quarrel noisily over a trivial matter
SUMMARY
The poem begins with the speaker informing the reader that she had four siblings and they all
tormented their mother. The family lived in poverty, without enough water to run a full bath.
Although the speaker was always present in the house, she didn’t realize that it was due to
money concerns that her mother was never truly happy. The speaker states that all the children
thought their mother was mean.
Now that she is older, the speaker is able to look back on her life and know why her mother
acted the way she did. She misses the interactions with all of her family members and still
carries a bit of guilt for what she has now, compared to then, when taking a full bubble bath.
THEME
The main theme is time and how perceptions alter over time. In particular, it's the change in
how the speaker in the poem sees her mother - there is a profound difference between the
Mommy of her childhood and the mother of her present, who has by now passed away, loosed
from the bonds/of lean, dry times.
The speaker's childhood takes up the bulk of the poem, the final two stanzas being the
retrospective part, where a new awareness becomes apparent. The once poor but happy child is
now an adult sybarite (luxury lover) someone who relishes sensual luxury.
But despite this awareness, the speaker feels an emptiness and misses her home and
her scattered sisters.

There are several secondary themes running through this poem:

i) The nature of and behavior in, childhood.

ii) Relationships children have with their parents and specifically, the mother.
iii) How to deal with feelings and memories.

STANZA – 1
When I was young and there were five of us,
All running riot to my mother’s quiet despair, hyperbole, alliteration
Our old enamel tub, age-stained and pocked leaving stanza 4 all are enjambment.
Upon its griffin claws, was never full. water in the poem symbolizes love and comfort
pocked – having holes
griffin - a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion,
typically depicted with pointed ears and with the eagle's legs taking the place of the forelegs.

In the first stanza of ‘Plenty’ the speaker begins by describing the basic parts of her childhood.
She is reminiscing on past times when she was “young” and spending time with her four
siblings. They were all taken care of by their mother, who was stuck in a “quiet despair.” The
speaker does not explain the cause of this despair, but the factors contributing to it become clear
as the lines progress. It was something that a child might’ve noted, but not known how to
handle. 

When the five children were young they would run through the house as if in a “riot.” The
speaker also mentions the poverty that they lived in. When they bathed, they used an “old
enamel tub” that was stained by age and “never full.” She explains why in the next lines. 
 STANZA – 2
Such plenty was too dear in our expanse of drought alliteration
Where dams leaked dry and windmills stalled. Assonance
Like Mommy’s smile. Her lips stretched back simile
And anchored down, in anger at some fault –assonance
stalled – stopped running

The family was unable to afford to fill the tub completely. It was “too dear” in the “drought’
they were in. It was during a period in which things never seemed to work right, at least for the
speaker’s family. There were dams that leaked till they were dry and windmills that stalled. The
speaker, in a childish way, compares these leaky dams and stalled windmills to “Mommy’s
smile.” 

The mother was empty of joy. Her lips were always “stretched” around in anger. The speaker
explains why she thought her mother was so angry in stanza three.

STANZA – 3
Of mine, I thought – not knowing then
It was a clasp to keep us all from chaos. Alliteration, hyperbole (clasp)
She saw it always, snapping locks and straps, assonance
The spilling: sums and worries, shopping lists assonance
Meaning
Clasp – grasp
Chaos - Disorder
Snapping – with a sharp cracking sound

In the third stanza, the speaker begins by finishing up the phrase started in stanza two. She
always assumed that her mother was angry at her, and that’s why she smiled the way she did.
This was not true, a fact the speaker didn’t realize this until she was much older. Now, since she
is an adult herself, she has learned that it was to keep all the things her mother worried about
from spilling out into her children’s lives. She had a “chaos” inside her that she tried to keep her
family safe from. 
STANZA – 4
For aspirin, porridge, petrol, bread. Alliteration
Even the toilet paper counted,
And each month was weeks too long. Oxymoron
Her mouth a lid clamped hard on this. Hyperbole

In the next lines of ‘Plenty’ the speaker continues her list of things her mother worried about.
These included mostly household items, such as toilet paper and food. 

The speaker knows now how her mother felt. It is described through oxymoron in line three.
The mother always thought that each “month was weeks too long.” This is likely a reference to
when she is going to get paid and have enough money to supply the family with more of the
things they need. In the last line, the speaker reiterates that her mother kept her “mouth” as a
lid, “clamped hard” down on everything she feared. 

STANZA – 5
We thought her mean. Skipped chores,
Swiped biscuits – best of all alliteration
When she was out of earshot
Stole another precious inch.

The speaker returns to her thoughts as a child. When she didn’t understand her mother’s life,
she thought “her mean,” as did all her siblings. They acted immaturely as if to get back at their
mother’s meanness.  Every time she wasn’t in the room they skipped their chores or “swiped
biscuits” from the cabinets. 

At the same time, and it is clear this is something the speaker regrets, they “stole another
precious inch” of water. This is described further in stanza six. 

STANZA – 6
Up to our chests, such lovely sin, alliteration
Lolling luxuriant in secret warmth
Disgorged from fat brass taps, assonance
Our old compliant co-conspirators. assonance
lolling – standing or lying in a lazy way
disgorged – pour something out
The speaker takes her time describing what it was exactly she stole. Finally, she gets to the fact
that it was water. They turned the taps on and luxuriated in the “secret warmth” that came from
“fat brass taps.” She and her “co-conspirators” loved these moments in which they could push
back against their mother’s strict rules. 
STANZA – 7
Now bubbles lap my chin. I am a sybarite.
The shower’s a hot cascade
And water’s plentiful, to excess, almost, here.
I leave the heating on. Assonance (in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel)
Meaning
Sybarite - self-indulgent in one owns pleasure

The description of these moments of happiness in the bath continues into stanza seven and the
speaker compares them to what her life is like now. She thinks of herself as a “sybarite,” or
someone who is self-indulgent in their pleasure. 

The speaker is now able to run a bath and have the bubbles come up to her “chin.” She can
leave the water on and it will continue to run, it is “plentiful.” To an extent, the speaker feels
guilty about the life she has now. It is so different from the one her mother knew and it makes
her miss the moments when they were all together as a family. 

STANZA – 8
And miss my scattered sisters, alliteration, and assonance
All those bathroom squabbles and, at last, assonance
My mother’s smile, loosed from the bonds
Of lean, dry times and our long childhood.
squabbles – quarrel noisily over a trivial matter

In the last lines of ‘Plenty’ the speaker gives in fully to the nostalgia that had been building
throughout the last seven stanzas. She misses her “scattered sisters” and the “squabbles” they

had in the bathroom. Although it did not seem like something to be appreciated and loved then,
the structure of her youth feels important now. 
More than anything else though, she misses the moments in which her mother’s “smile” (which
was more like a frown) became real. It was “loosed” from the “dry times of” her “long
childhood.” These were pure moments that won’t come again. 

Questions and Answers

Q1. What is the significance of her mother's smile in "Plenty?"

Ans In "Plenty" by Isobel Dixon, the mother's smile is a significant symbol that represents a
range of emotions and experiences.

Throughout the poem, the mother is depicted as a strong and resilient figure who has endured
hardships and struggles in her life. She is described as having "the voice of a woman / who has
swallowed pain," and her hands are depicted as being "toughened" from years of hard work.
Despite these challenges, however, the mother continues to smile, showing a sense of resilience
and inner strength.

The mother's smile is also significant because it represents her ability to find joy and
contentment in the simple pleasures of life, such as spending time with her family and enjoying
the beauty of nature. When she smiles, she brings light and warmth to those around her, and her
smile is described as being "like honey" and "like butter," suggesting its sweetness and
nourishing qualities.

Furthermore, the mother's smile represents the cycle of life and the passage of time. The poem
describes how the mother's smile changes over the years, becoming "smudged" and "a little
tired," but still remaining a symbol of her strength and resilience. The final lines of the poem
suggest that the mother's smile will continue to live on, even after she has passed away, as a
symbol of her enduring legacy.

Overall, the mother's smile in "Plenty" is a significant symbol that represents a range of
emotions and experiences, including resilience, joy, and the passage of time. It is a powerful
image that captures the essence of the mother's character and the impact she has had on those
around her.
Q2. How does the poet present the theme of childhood in ‘Plenty’?

Ans Dixon’s reflective poem explores the difficulties of growing up in poverty as the poet
describes her family’s ‘lean, dry times’ during her ‘long childhood’. However, at the same time,
she demonstrates positive experiences that can develop from difficult times, and we realise that
overall, she had a happy start to her life. Overall, though some children have less money than
others, Dixon demonstrates that a strong family relationship is the most important factor to a
happy childhood, and we get a sense that though she is now richer she also feels lonelier.

Firstly, Dixon explores her own childhood by looking back on the state of poverty she and her
siblings lived in as her single mother struggled to provide for them all. The title ‘Plenty’
directly juxtaposes the imagery of the play, as it connotes abundance but we are presented with
images of difficulty and hardship: ‘my mother’s quiet despair’, ‘sums and worries’, ‘our
expanse of drought’. This destabilises the reader’s sense of the poem, as we at first expect the
topic to be about the poet’s wealth and her fortunate circumstances. In particular, the sibilance
of the phrase ‘sums and worries’ create a low buzzing atmosphere, implying that there was
always constant anxiety hanging over the mother when she tried hard to provide for her
children. Furthermore, the metaphor ‘drought’ references the central connecting image of the
poem — taking a bath — and suggests that the poet views having more than enough water as a
sign of luxury. Water is symbolic of life, but it is also often considered a basic necessity by
many — especially those in the developed world. This makes us compare our own childhood
experiences to hers; we either find that we too struggled to have enough and similarly
remember basic needs such as water and heat being scarce, or we realise that we have taken
them for granted and should appreciate them more because not everyone is lucky enough to
have them. The asyndetic listing ‘aspirin, porridge, petrol, bread’ further provides us with visual
imagery that represents scarcity — we realise that the poet’s mother has to control her
expenditure of even simple and essential items, and the lack of conjunctions in the list
reinforces the idea that there was no room for anything extra. Overall, the sense of hardship is
present throughout the poem through many smaller descriptions, which lead us to infer that
Dixon’s childhood was one of very scant means.

Though money is scarce, we do realise that ‘Plenty’ relates to the poem in other ways, such as
the strong family bonds with her sisters that Dixon made in her childhood. Interestingly, we
realise that they are especially close because of sharing the experience of hardship together, and
poverty becomes almost like a game for them: they ‘Skipped chores / Swiped biscuits’ and
‘stole another precious inch’ of water for their baths. The children’s playful resistance against
their mother’s strict rules brings them closer together, as reinforced by the verbs ‘Skipped’,
‘Swiped’, and ‘stole’ creating a sense of constant playful activity and enjoyment of
disobedience.

Dixon refers to her siblings using the first-person collective pronoun ‘we’, which further creates
the sense that they are all working together as one group. However, Dixon’s relationship with
her mother is more complex — she asserts that the children ‘thought her mean’ and describes
‘Mommy’s smile’ as ‘a clasp to keep us all from chaos’. This creates a conflicting tone through
a double perspective, as we realise that in childhood Dixon didn’t quite understand her mother’s
reasons for strict parenting and so interpreted her actions as cruelty, but she has now changed
her opinion. When she describes her mother as she saw her in childhood, we are presented with
a controlling and angry figure, but as an adult reflecting on her past Dixon characterises her
mother instead of with sympathy and respect. She states that she interpreted the mother’s
expression as ‘anger at some fault//Of mine, I thought, the use of enjambment across the stanzas
creates a reflective pause on the image of the mother’s angry smile (which in itself
demonstrates conflicted emotions). It perhaps represents Dixon’s guilt when she looks back on
her naive and immature childhood self and her appreciation for her mother’s actions as an adult.

Finally, this double perspective on her childhood is enhanced further through the final stanzas
of the poem, which demonstrate a shift from the poet’s memory to her current situation —
where she is wealthy and taking a luxurious bath. This is represented by the tense shift from
past to present, which creates a volta in the second to last stanza through the time adverbial
‘Now’. The time jump corresponds to a jump in perspective, and we realise that she is looking
back at her childhood from a position of luxury. The short sentence ‘I am a Sybarite’ stands out
from the flow of the poem and seems to summarise her current position, as Sybarites in Ancient
Greece had a reputation for living in excessive luxury; the term has connotations of wealth but
also perhaps suggests self-indulgence in a negative sense too. This implies that Dixon has
mixed feelings about her current richness: extreme pleasure but also guilt as she tells us she
leaves ‘the heating on and ‘the water’s plentiful, to excess, almost’ — the commas create a
slight pause that suggests she is switching between these positive and negative feelings. In the
final stanza, this image of luxury is compromised slightly by the feelings of longing and
nostalgia for the past that are expressed via a series of images — the poet misses her ‘scattered
sisters’, the ‘bathroom squabbles’ and even her ‘mother’s smile’. In some ways, we realise, not
having enough money can give you more genuine and deep experiences and memories, and the
final message of the poem seems to be to appreciate what you have and cherish memories of
good times above any pursuit of wealth or luxury.

In summary, in ‘Plenty’ childhood is presented in a complex and subtle way — the tensions
between parents and children are playful yet immature, and as an adult, the poet sees that her
seemingly strict mother was in fact an excellent parent. Dixon also uses a comparison with her
childhood and her present moment to draw some interesting conclusions on the differences
between poverty and wealth and certainly invites us to understand that being poor and
experiencing hardship does not always equal suffering. Through the poem, we are encouraged
to reflect on our own hard and abundant times and to find a deeper appreciation for both these
states of being.