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Analysis of the poem, ‘The Woman speaks to the man who has employed her Son ’

Nature/Situation

The speaker tells us of a mother who has worked and made sacrifices to raise her son only to
have her hopes destroyed when the boy gets caught up with criminal elements. She is
resigned to the certainty that his life will end violently (the day he draws his bloody salary),
that she buys the material for her funeral dress ahead of the event.

Structure

This poem is free verse written in six unrhymed stanzas of equal length. The absence of end
rhymes is effective because it suggests that the speaker simply cannot bring order and
harmony to this tragedy. The stanzas are of regular length because they suggest the certainty
and inevitability of the events that will take place.

Stanza One

This describes the mother’s pregnancy and her willingness to keep the child.

Stanza Two

This describes the father’s absence and indifference to all his children.

Stanza Three

This explains that the mother has been both mother and father to the child. The speaker
moves to the employer who has equipped the boy with a sub-machine gun.

Stanza Four

The mother is sceptical about the employer even though the boy idolizes him. The only
salary her son is likely to earn from such employment will be a bloody death, so she proceeds
to buy funeral clothes.

Stanza Five

The mother is powerless against the big time criminal so she can only pray and cry.

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Stanza Six

This stanza compares the boy’s mother with the mother of Judas and the thief who died
alongside Jesus. The boy’s mother identifies herself with biblical mothers of criminals and
the biblical King David who had a rebellious son named Absalom.

Themes


 Childhood Experiences
 Motherhood
 Societal Issues
 Religion
 Male/Female Relationships
 Male Marginalization
 Dreams and Aspirations
 Poverty
 Morality
 Death

Figurative Devices

Irony

 Lines 14-16: The father treated all his children fairly by not showing any interest in
any of them.

 Lines 22-24: The mother laments that it is unfathomable that someone could love her
son so much yet give him a sub-machine gun.

 Lines 41-47: She has invested in payer and tears as Judas’ mother might have done
yet her son has still taken the wrong path.

Euphemism

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Lines 5-6: “Such signs made her know that she was not alone in her body”- The mother was
pregnant.

Pun

Line 8: “Under her heart”- The baby was literally under her heart as well as she
metaphorically held him tight in her heart with love.

Sarcasm

Lines 22-24: The mother wonders how this man claims that he loves her son so dearly yet he
gives him a weapon of destruction.

Caesura

Line 12: This emphasizes that the mother has taken care of her son and she expects him to
return the favour considering that she looked after him by herself because his father neglected
him.

Simile

Lines 9-10: “She carried him like the poor carry hope’- This simile indicates that the child
was seen as promising, something good for the life of the poor woman.

Contrast

The poem begins with talk of morning sickness and the baby growing inside the mother
(intimate and natural) but then dramatically switches to talk about machine guns and hot
exploding death. The contrast is also between life and death and between nature and
technology.

Biblical Allusion

 Line 28: “when he asks him for bread” alludes to Matthew 7:9, “Or what man is there
of you, whom if his son asks for bread, will give him stone?”
 Line 36: “She says Psalms for him”- She says Psalms to protect her son.

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 Line 37: “She reads Psalms for you”- She reads Psalms that will render punishment to
the offender.
 Lines 41-47: refer to Luke 23:32-33; 39-42- Jesus assures the thief on the cross that
his sins will be forgiven and he will get to go to heaven with him.
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And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.
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And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified
him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be
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Christ, save thyself and us.

But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou
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art in the same condemnation?

And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man
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hath done nothing amiss.

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And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
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paradise.

 Line 48: ‘Absalom’ means ‘Father of Peace’. This links the mother’s grief to that of
King David, who under the influence of Achitophe plotted against his father and was
killed. (2 Samuel 18:33- “33 And the king was much moved, and went up to the
chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my
son!”

Metaphor
 Line 36: “knee city” refers to prayers said while kneeling.
 Line 41: “She is throwing a partner”- She is investing in prayers and tears.

DICTION

The diction reflects the themes in the poem: ‘Hot and exploding death’, ‘bloody salary’,
‘knee city’ etc.

MOOD/ ATMOSPHERE:

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The mood changes from hope to disappointment and wry humour..

TONE:

The voice in the poem is one of lamentation.

POINT OF VIEW:

The poem is written in the third person point of view .

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