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SIXT Y-SIX - Kamala Das About the Poet: She is a sensitive writer who captures the complexities of human relationships in her poems. THEME OF THE POEM ➢ Fear of loss or separation from the old ageing mother. It talks about the anguish of the daughter over her mother’s advancing age and the fear of permanent separation from her PAGE 1 THEEXTRACL ASS.COM Driving home…..merry children spilling out of their homes WORD MEANINGS: i. Ashen: very pale ii. Doze: sleeping iii. Corpse : like a dead body The poetess begins by telling us that she is returning back from her parent’s home to Cochin last Friday when she observes her mother who is sitting beside her and describes her as: • Sleeping with her mouth open with ashen or pale face she was looking like a dead body and a thought struck her mind that her mother is getting old and she might lose her. The poetess felt pained at the miseries and sufferings of the old age. To put that thought away and distract herself she looks outside the window and saw the trees sprinting or speeding past by and the young children playing outside their homes. IMPORTANT WORDS: 1. Trees Sprinting: sprinting means short fast race or running. This means that these trees racing past and the speeding car are a reminder that the time has flown by as fast as her mother was so youthful but now she has grown old. Question related to this: Why are the young trees described as sprinting? 2. Merry children spilling: Merry children spilling means the happy or joyous children playing or spilling outside their house. They symbolizes youth, energy, life. These children full of energy and life are a sharp contrast to her mother who is weak, dull and lifeless at sixty six. This gives poetess the realization that her mother is now coming off age and she may lose her in near future. PAGE 2 THEEXTRACL ASS.COM Question related to this: Why has the poet brought in the image of merry children spilling out of their homes? These two images (of trees and children) present a stark contrast to her old ageing mother. Her mother’s pale ashen like face symbolizes inactiveness, death, ageing and decay on the other hand the trees and young children symbolize the activeness, zeal and the beginning of life. “But after airport…my childhood fear” WORD MEANINGS: i. Wan: colorless ii. Winter’s moon: winter’s moon is basically hazy or unclear because its hidden behind iii. Ache: pain • In the next few lines she talks about the familiar ache or the painful realization that she has not cared for her ageing mother enough. • This ache symbolizes her helplessness and the underlying fear of separation from her. It is familiar because she has experienced it in the past as well maybe as a child when she came to know she has to go and work away from her. • She compares her mother’s pale and withered face with the winter’s moon. She specifically writes winter here because the winter’s moon looses it radiance and brightness behind the fog and mist just like her mother’s face seemed to lose itsradiance misted by her age. Winter also symbolizes death or inactivity when nothing grows and the waning moon symbolizes fading or decay. Questions related to this: Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’? What is the familiar ache of the poetess and why does it keep on returning to her? What do you mean by familiar ache? PAGE 3 THEEXTRACL ASS.COM “But all I said………smile” • The last four lines of the poem are the parting words that she says to her mother. • These words are expressive of her dilemma and confusion in her mind and the repetition of the word “Smile” three times signifies ÷ 1) Her fear of losing her mother. 2) The anxiety of her mother’s frailing health , which she tries to cover up with a smile 3) The hope that her mother would survive long. Question regarding this: What does the parting words of the poet and her smile signify? LITERARY DEVICES USED IN THE POEM I. SIMILE • Her face ashen like that of corpse. • wan, pale as a winter’s moon II. REPITITION • Thought away….. Thought away. • Smile and smile and smile SYMBOLS AND IMAGERY: • Trees sprinting • Merry children spilling PAGE 4 THEEXTRACL ASS.COM
