Alliteration: ‘m’ sound and ‘s’ sound
My Mother at Sixty-six
Free verse - no rhyme scheme
Starts like a story
Enjambment
She’s leaving her parent’s home to
go to the airport.
Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
Consonance: ‘m’ sound
Simile: The complexion of her face is
compared to that of a corpse.
beside me,
Assonance: ‘o’ sound
doze, open mouthed, her face
Consonance: soft ‘s’ sound (sibilance)
ashen like that
Tried to distract herself by looking
out the car window.
of a corpse and realized with pain
Simile: the physical features of her mother are
compared to the external signs of aging
that she was as old as she
looked but soon
Repetition: looked
put that thought away, and
looked out at Young
Personification: trees are said
to be sprinting I.e. running
Consonance: ‘t’ sound
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
Imagery
By Kamala Das
out of their homes, but after the airport’s
security check, standing a few yards
away, I looked again at her, wan, pale
Assonance: ‘i’ sound
Metonymy: ‘merry children’ is a symbol
for innocence, youth, liveliness, and hope
Tautology: wan and pale have the same
meaning
Simile: her mother is compared
to a late winter’s moon
as a late winter’s moon and felt that old
Metonymy: ‘late winter’s moon’ is a
symbol for death and old age
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
all I did was smile and smile and
Consonance: ‘s’ sound
Palilogy: ‘smile’
The moon loses its brightness in
winter and appears pale-white.
smile......
Polysyndeton: and is
repeated for emphasis
Words from the Poem
Cochin: a city in Kerala
Spilling out: come out in large numbers
Doze: sleep lightly; napping
Yards: unit of length (3 feet or 0.9m)
Ashen: (of a person's face) very pale with shock, fear, or
Wan: pale; weak; exhausted
illness.
Pale: having less colour than usual, here due to old age or ill
She was as old as she looked: she looked like an old person
health.
Sprinting: running fast
Ache: pain
Merry: joyful, happy
Central Idea:
The central idea of the poem is the process of aging which is an important phase of life. It’s a process that remains persistent from
childhood till old age and it is the process that often leads to eventual death. In this poem, the poet relates a personal experience.
She depicts the emotions she feels on bidding farewell to her beloved mother and in doing so she portrays a sensational separation
of a mother and a daughter.
Title
As the title suggests, the poem is about the poet’s sixty-six year old mother. In the poem, Kamala Das points at her mother’s age
and also describes her physical features that reflect her aging process. At the beginning of the poem, Das sees her mother’s face
and recognizes the signs of imminent death. The rest of the poem is about how she comes to terms with the reality of that situation
and how she chooses to deal with the prospect of her mother dying. On her drive to the airport, she encounters a contrasting image
of children playing near their homes which highlights the diminishing years of her mother’s life. In a much more broader sense,
the poem is about - life, death and the process of aging. The poem ends with Kamala Das coming to terms with the fact that her
mother’s death is something that is unavoidable and out of her power. And hence she chooses to embrace it by telling her mother
that she’ll see her again and departing with a smile.
Main points
1. Poetess travelling to Cochin airport with her mother in a car.
5. After the security check the old familiar ache returns.
2. Looks at the wan, pale face of her dozing mother.
6. Tries to hide her emotions by smiling.
3. Old fear of loosing her mother returns.
7. Bids good bye to her mother with a hope to see her again.
4. Sprinting trees and merry children provide the contrast and
relief.
Author’s Note: Use Navigation pane for easier access. I’ve divided the poem into 5 stanzas (24 lines) for convenience but that is not the
right alignment, so use the textbook for side by side reference.
Stanza by Stanza Explanation:
Lines 1 to 4
Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me,
Explanation: The poet is leaving her mother’s home and driving to the airport to leave Cochin. She is clearly recapitulating
(summarizing) something that had happened in the past, meaning it has been a while since she had left her mother. On the car ride
to the airport, she looks at her mother who is beside her.
Poetic Devices:
Enjambment: continuation of a sentence or phrase from one
Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds - ‘o’ sound
line of poetry to the next. An enjambed line typically lacks
Consonance: repetition of similar consonant sounds - ‘m’
punctuation at its line break,
sound
Extract:
1. Where is the poet driving to?
3. Where was she leaving from?
To the airport in Cochin.
From her parent’s home.
2. Who was sitting beside her?
4. What are the poetic devices used in the given extract?
Her mother.
Refer Poetic Devices
Lines 5 to 10
doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that
of a corpse and realized with pain
that she was as old as she
looked
Explanation: her mother was napping with her mouth open. Her face looked greyish and pale like that of a corpse. Here, the poet
likens her mother’s face to a corpse and gives us a glimpse of the physical signs of her aging. The poet uses the simile here to
point at the imminent death of her mother. The poet feels pain at the realization that her mother has gotten old and that her
physical health is deteriorating. In the last line of the stanza, the poet says that her mother’s physical appearance reflects her age.
Poetic Devices:
Simile: compares two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than" 1. Ashen like that of a corpse: the complexion of her face is compared to that of a corpse
2. She was as old as she looked: the physical features of her mother are compared to external signs of aging
Assonance: ‘o’ sound.
Consonance: Soft ‘s’ sound and ‘sh’ sound
Extract:
1. What are the poetic devices used in the given extract?
2. What does the poet mean by ‘She was as old as she
Refer Poetic Devices
looked’?
Refer Explanation
3. To what does the poet compare her mother to and why?
4. What was the poet’s mother doing?
To a corpse and to point at the impending death of her mother
Dozing with her mouth open.
5. What emotion does the poet feel upon seeing her mother sleeping?
She is pained.
Lines 10 to 14
but soon
put that thought away, and
looked out at Young
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes,
Explanation: She tried to distract herself from the depressing thought of her mother’s aging, so she looks outside the car window
and sees children playing happily and trees speeding past her. The image of the old mother is in stark contrast with the imagery of
the “Young Trees” and “merry children.” Collectively, these images create a contrast between life and death, hope and
hopelessness. Inside the car, her aging mother gave her feelings of grief and hopelessness. In contrast, the outside scene from the
car filled the speaker with hope, joy, and vitality.
Poetic Devices:
Imagery: Using vivid or figurative language to represent ideas,
objects, or actions.
Personification: imparting human characteristics to something
inhuman - Trees sprinting.
Assonance: ‘i’ sound.
Metonymy: a thing or concept is referred to by the name of
something closely associated with that thing or concept - The
merry children coming out of their homes in large numbers
present an image of happiness and spontaneous overflow of
life. They are a symbol of innocence, freshness, liveliness, and
hope.
Extract:
1. What thought does the poet put away?
2. What does the poet do to distract herself?
She puts away the thought of her mother’s age and her death.
She looks out the car window.
3. What does she see?
4. What do the young trees and merry children symbolize?
She sees young trees sprinting and merry children playing.
Refer Explanation.
5. What are the two contrasting images presented in the
6. What are the poetic devices used in the extract?
extract?
Refer Poetic Devices.
Refer Explanation.
Lines 14 to 19
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
Explanation: Despite her efforts to distract herself, the poet shifts back to reality when she’s standing at the airport’s security
check. She looks at her mother again and describes her as being pale and wan. The late winter’s moon is calm and hazy with a
dim lustre. It loses its vitality and power. So the poetess compares her mother’s calm, colourless and withered face like the late
winter’s moon. She has become weak, wan and pale due to her age of sixty-six. She has lost her vitality.
Poetic device:
Tautology: saying of the same thing twice over in different words - wan, pale
Simile: poet’s mother is compared to a late winter’s moon.
Metonymy: ‘late winter’s moon’ is a symbol for death and old age.
Extracts:
1. Who does the poet compare to a ‘late winter’s moon’?
Her mother.
2. Why does the poet compare her mother to a ‘late winter’s moon?’ (or) What does the ‘late winter’s moon’ symbolize?
She uses the simile here to describe the appearance of her mother but the comparison also serves as a metaphor for the old age of
her mother.
Lines 18 to 24
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......
Explanation: As she looks at her mother in the airport she feels a familiar ache. The poet hints at her childhood fear which is the
fear of losing her mother (of her mother dying), and she feels this fear again as she gets ready to leave her mother. As a child, she
might have thought that someday her mother was going to leave her alone. She cannot protect her loved ones from dying. At the
time of leaving her mother, she was reminded of this truth, the mortality of her mother. She feels pain at the thought of losing her
mother, which is the familiar ache that she refers to.
Poetic Devices:
Consonance: ‘s’ sound
Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions - ‘and’ is repeated
Palilogy: repetition of a word for emphasis
Extracts:
1. What is the poet’s childhood fear?
2. Why does she feel a familiar ache?
Losing her mother or her mother’s death.
Refer Explanation
3. How does the poet react to the thought of losing her mother?
She is initially pained at the thought but then she accepts the mortality of her mother. She realizes her powerlessness in the
situation. The death of her mother is eventual and inevitable and she accepts that fact. Hence, she tells her mother she’ll see her
soon, even though she was not sure she would see her mother again. She departs her mother with a smile which could’ve been her
final farewell.
4. What does the poet’s smile at the end means?
It means that even though the poet is saddened by the possibility of her mother’s death, she accepts it, as mortality and death are a
natural part of life that she can’t change.
Questions and Answers
What childhood fear did Kamala Das refer to in the poem?
Why are the children said to be “spilling out of their
How did she hide it?
homes”?
Kamala Das’s childhood fear was the imminent death of her
The children are depicted as a symbol of life and energy. It
mother. She hid her fear behind the facade of a smile.
seemed to the poet that the children were spilling out their
energy while coming out of their homes to play.
Why does the poet smile, and what does she say while
Why was her mother’s “face ashen like that of a corpse”?
bidding goodbye to her mother?
Her mother’s face was ashen due to aging. The poet compares
The poet smiled to hide her pain. She did not want to show her
her mother’s face to a corpse to foreshadow her imminent
true feelings to her mother as it would make her mother weak.
death and mortality.
In the end, she could only say, “see you soon, Amma.”
Q. What did the poet notice about the mother?
Q. Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?
Ans. She noticed that her mother was weak, pale and
Ans. The young trees are described as sprinting’ as the
unconscious like a dead body.
movement of the racing car makes the trees appear as if they
are running along.
Q. How does the poet describe her mother in the poem?
Q. Why is the mother compared to the late winter’s moon?
Ans. The poet describes her mother as an old lady who has
Ans. The mother is compared to the late winter’s moon
become pale, weak and worn out. She often dozes and remains
because like the moon of winter season, the poet’s mother also
unconscious about herself like a dead body.
looks pale, dull and grayish.
Q. What childhood fears do you think, the poet is referring
Q. What does Kamala Das do after the security check up?
to in the poem?
What does she notice?
Ans. The poet feels uneasy and unprotected with the thought of
Ans. After the security check up, the poet stands a few yards
losing her mother. She does not expect to see her mother again
away from her mother and gazes at her mother. She notices the
on her return. So she shows a childish unwillingness to leave
declining age and finds her pale and worn out than ever before.
her mother.
Q. Why does the poet look outside? What activities does the
Q. Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry
poet see outside the car window?
children ‘spilling out of their homes’?
Ans. The poet feels very sad thinking that her mother is
Ans. The poet, Kamala Das, has used the image of merry
nearing death. This painful thought makes her worried and
children spilling out of their homes to bring a contrast between
anxious. So in order to divert her attention from her mother,
the old age and childhood. Her mother’s pale, colourless face
she looks outside.The poet sees young trees running past them.
stands for old and fading age. Merry children symbolise the
She also sees little children coming out of their homes in a
spring of life, vigour and happiness. They also symbolize
merry mood. She sees life and vitality in the outside world.
spontaneity of life in contrast to the passive and inactive life of
her aged mother.
Q. The poet compares her mother to many things. Pick out
Q. Cite an example of one device of contrast that the poet
two similes which reinforce this comparison.
uses in the poem.
Ans. The two similes are: “Her face ashen like that of a
corpse.”
“I looked again at her wan, pale as a late winter’s moon”
Ans. The device of contrast that the poet uses in the poem is
old age of her mother and the young trees and children playing
merrily. The poet compares youth, energy, vitality and
jubilance of childhood.
Q. Why did the poet say “see you soon Amma”? What does
Q. Discuss mother- daughter relationship as described in
the poet actually mean by “smile and smile and smile….”?
the poem.
What kind of smile is it?
Ans. Mother- daughter relationship as described in the poem is
Ans. The poet said, “See you soon Amma” in order to give her
very sensitive and full of love, care and emotions. Mother has a
mother moral support and encouragement. Her parting words
deep emotional link to her children and does not want them to
also hide her anxiety and fear about her mother’s rather frail
be away. In particular, when the mother reaches her old age,
health but reflect also a faint hope that the old woman would
she becomes more concerned and worried about her children.
survive long enough for the two to meet again. By “smile and
Daughter also tends to bear a specific kind of emotional link to
smile and smile…” she means to make herself and her mother
her mother. She tries to remain close to her mother and feels
hopeful to see each other again. It is actually a painful smile.
very bad and worried when separated from her. In this poem,
The poet tries to conceal the swelling emotions by smiling. By
the mother does not want her daughter to leave her; similarly
using this poetic device of repetition, the poet has made the
the daughter gives a mysterious and indefinable smile which is
poetic language rich by depicting many hidden emotions
to show unwillingness and anxiety of leaving her mother.
through “smile”.
Q. “My Mother at sixty six” is an emotional account of the poet about her old mother. Discuss.
Ans. “My Mother at sixty six” is an emotional account of the poet about her old mother. She feels very sad and depressed on
seeing her pale, weak and worn out. She tries her best to divert her thought but remains unsuccessful and this thought haunts her
mind every now and then. Till the end of the poem, she feels very sad and disappointed about the declining age of her mother. She
is unable to express her fears and emotions to her mother with the thought of disheartening her. She bids goodbye to her mother by
just smiling in order to hide her hurt feelings and encourage her mother.
Themes
Death
Death or mortality is one of the most significant themes of “My Mother at Sixty-Six.” Kamala Das depicts the theme by using the
image of the aging mother and especially her “ashen” face. In the first encounter, the speaker’s mother is seen dozing openmouthed. The complexion of her face resembles that of a deceased person. Next, the speaker stands in the airport. This time, she
uses “wan” and “pale” to describe her mother’s face. These adjectives are closely associated with a dying person. In this way, the
theme of death or mortality lingers throughout the poem.
Old Age
The poet illustrates the immobility and stiffness of old age through the image of her sixty-six-year-old mother. She describes how
old age makes a person weak and fragile with time. Her pale face is a representation of hopelessness as well as death. Though it is
not clear whether she is suffering from any ailment or not, the poet’s choice of words reveals that she is not well. In this way, the
poet makes use of the theme of old-age through the pessimistic image of her mother.
Life versus Death
Apart from the themes of death and old age, there is also the
The poet takes us to her inner world. She shares her intimate
theme of life versus death and hope versus pessimism. Das
thoughts and makes readers her compatriot of the pain she felt
only uses two images to tap on this theme. One is of the
on that day. She is aware of the fact that she has to leave her
“Young Trees” sprinting alongside the car. The other one is of
aging mother behind at some point. It is true that the process is
the “merry children spilling out of their homes.” The trees
painful and takes a lot of effort to forget one’s loved ones. But
symbolize life and mobility, and the children symbolize
it’s life. Moving on with the freshness of the morning, leaving
innocence and vitality. In contrast, the image of her mother’s
the ashes of the past behind, is part and parcel of life.
face portrays the futility of life, hopelessness, and despair. In
this way, the children running out of their homes depict the
bright side of life.
Mother-Daughter Relationship
Kamala Das also presents the theme of the mother-daughter relationship in “My Mother at Sixty-Six.” This poem contains a
daughter’s feelings for her aging mother, standing on the verge of death. The pale face of her old mother pains her deep. She feels
stranded in this journey of life whenever the thought of her mother’s death crosses her mind. At the moment of departure, when
she looked at her mother, she was speechless to think that she was going to die one day. She could not say anything instead of
smiling by hiding her tears: all I said was, see you soon, Amma,/ all I did was smile and smile and/ smile……”
Tone & Mood
The first few lines of Kamala Das’s “My Mother at Sixty-Six” are written using a sad and depressing tone. The speaker talks about
her aging mother in a natural tone. Though she is sympathetic towards her mother, she realistically talks about her face. It sounds
like she is talking about any aged person next door. She says that there is an “ashen” look on her face. This word hints at her
mother’s approaching death. While talking about these things, her tone is straightforward.
In lines 11-13, she describes how nature is filled with life, hope, and vitality. Momentarily, her tone becomes a bit uplifting and
hopeful. However, it changes in the lines after. It resonates with the tone of the first section and continues throughout the text.
Towards the end, the speaker hints at her childhood fear of losing her mother. These lines reflect the pain of losing her mother.