J.M.
English 2202
23 July 2002

Life vs. Death: Connections between "The Mother" and "Now That I Am Forever with Child"

The water slowly started to pool beneath my eyelids as I stumbled along with a shaking voice through the touching words of Gwendolyn Brooks' poem, "The Mother," last Thursday in class.  (#1)  On the other hand, minutes later Audre Lorde brought to life the joys of birthing a magnificent new being in her poem entitled " Now That I Am Forever with Child."  Being that both poems are about childbirth, they have similarities; however, one story is that of life and the other of tragic deaths.

Both of these authors flooded their poems with visual images.  This technique acts as a great tool to connect with the reader.  Words like "damp small pulps," "dim killed children," and "straight baby tears" help to create the somber, regretful tone the speaker has at the loss of her aborted children.  The opposite is true of Lorde's poem.  She uses words like "blooming within," "fluttered," "the seed opened," and "my legs were towers between which a new world was passing" to portray a positive loving tone of a new mother.  (#2)  This last excerpt ("my legs...") is a stark contrast to a line that popped out at me in Brooks' poem, "If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths."  The image of the delicate little breaths of a newborn cut off by the actions of the one who had conceived her just tugs at my heart.  It is therefore easy to imagine why this speaker is in such anguish.

Some of the other similarities between the two poems include the fact that both contain three stanzas, and neither appears to me to have a syllabic pattern or a constant meter.  Also, both authors use alliteration ("I have said, Sweets, If I sinned, if I seized" and "first fluttered") and personification ("Abortions will not let you forget," "gobbling mother-eye," and "one thread within running hours").  (#3)  Both poems are in the first person in that the mother is speaking to her child, except for in the first stanza of Brooks' poem where the mother is talking to the reader.  Overall, both poems touched me in some way and excited me with the anticipation of the life I might someday create when another little soul is planted within me.  (#4)

(393 words)

Prof's Comments:

(#1)  I never like reading that poem aloud either -- thanks for doing it.

(#2)  Good examples.

(#3)  Good examples to illustrate the technical poetic elements.

(#4)  Well done -- a very focused comparison