My Mother at Sixty-six About the poet Kamala Das (1934) was born in Malabar, Kerala. She is recognised as one of India’s foremost poets. Her works are known for their originality, versatility and the indigenous flavour of the soil. Kamala Das has published many novels and short stories in English and Malayalam under the name ‘Madhavikutty’. Some of her works in English include the novel Alphabet of Lust (1977), a collection of short stories Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (1992), in addition to five books of poetry. She is a sensitive writer who captures the complex subtleties of human relationships in lyrical idiom, My Mother at Sixty-six is an example.
Driving from my parent’s home to Cochin last Friday morning, I saw my mother, beside me, doze, open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse and realised with pain that she thought away, and looked but soon put that thought away, and looked out at young trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes, but after the airport’s security check, standing a few yards away, I looked again at her, wan,
pale
as a late winter’s moon and felt that
old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon,
Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and
smile……
What are the poetic devices used in the poem?
Simile:
1.her face ashen like that of a corpse
2.wan, pale as a late winter’s moon
Metaphor
the merry children spilling out of their homes
Personification
young trees sprinting
Repetition
I did was smile and smile and smile……
How to write an appreciation for the poem:My Mother at sixty six
A touching poem that laments separation. An adult daughter for the first time accepts that her mother is no more young. She sees the reality that rules life. We have traveled long journey of life together but here we separate.Kamala Surayya captures the picture of her mother in a significant moment of comprehension. The speaker in a fast-forward life, pauses for a moment to regard her mother, with reference to time and space. The drive from home to Cochin also serves to illustrate the metaphor of journey as experience. The poem is indeed born, out of love as one observes the possessive pronoun ‘my’ when the word ‘Mother’ is prefixed. The speaker’s understanding of her mother at the age of sixty-six, is indeed one of enriched experience. It comes out of the speaker’s individual maternal experience as with her own children and also from the past when she was single. She could probably understand her better as mother now.The seemingly short poem touches upon the theme of the filial bond between the mother and daughter smeared in the backdrop of nostalgia and fear.Nostalgia of the past(the time spent with the mother) and fear of the future without her.It is a poem on separation. It is a poem on death.
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