The youngest daughter
By Cathy Song
Presented by
Amina Cormier
About Cathy Song……..
She was born August 20, 1955. She is an AsianAmerican poet. She is the 1982 winner of the Yale
Series of Younger Poets Award for her collection
Picture Bride. Song now resides in Kamala, Hawaii.
Song was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father,
Andrew Song, worked as a Korean-American airline
pilot. Her mother, Ella, was a seamstress and had
immigrated from China. Song graduated from
Wellesley College with a bachelor's degree in 1977
and from Boston University in 1981 with a master's
degree in Creative Writing. Song’s culture had a lot
to do with her taking care of her mother.
Information on the poem
•Genre : The genre of this poem is a
dramatic monologue
•Form: The form of this poem is
written in prose
The language of the poem contributes to it’s
meaning because inside the poem the author
uses imagery by the repetition of the fact that her
mother is older and that the same steps from
their everyday lives are repeated.
Organization
Organization
The poem is organized in five stanzas
and each stanzas are compiled within
a couple sentences.
The language of poem is free flowing because
she uses graphic images and it is
Straight forward. This poem is also real and the
author doesn’t need to use big words to make
the poem sound better.
Dramatic Context
• The dramatic context of this poem is that
the speaker of the poem is unhappy with
her mother’s condition. She is sad and
wants to run away because of her
tiredness and also she has lots of stress
upon her.
Motivation
• The speaker is motivated to speak in the
tone she uses because she is noticing that
her mother has become older and her
body is getting old as well. The speaker is
really motivated because she is comparing
herself to her mom and she is looking at
how much her mother's body has decayed
with age, and realizes that her own body is
beginning to go the same way. The
speaker is sad and very unhappy.
Theme
• The theme of this poem is that it is very
important, and tragic, that a woman loses
her beauty. In this poem the mother is the
person losing her beauty and the daughter
is following the same foot steps.
Speaker of the poem
• The speaker of the poem is the youngest
daughter. This poem reveals that the
speaker feels she has no station in life
because she is very unhappy and feels as
if she is missing out on life and she always
taking care of her mother.
Who is the speaker talking to?
• The speaker is having an internal thought
because in the poem it shows no evidence
of her talking to anyone.
During the poem
• During the poem, there is a conflict but the
conflict is internal because the speaker’s
feeling unhappy due to her mother’s sickness.
This conflict is important because it is making
the speaker want to run away from home
because she is stressed out and she feels she
never gets to feel sun, because she is always in
the house taking care of her mom. The
speaker of this poem is a participant.
Initial Response
• This poem spoke to me because it is sad to
hear such a story. My response changed after
reading the poem because before I read it I
thought it would be about a daughter getting
spoiled because as people say the youngest
are spoiled but after reading it, it is the total
opposite
New Poem
I have not seen the sun in so long
Take care of my mother in our home
I am exhausted from all this stress
Being in this house has caused so much mess
All these bruises on my mothers body make me sick to my stomach
I don’t think I can deal with this anymore
As I put on my shoes I look at the door
I cannot leave my poor mother if I wanted to
So I will continue on taking care of my mother and pull through
IMPROVEMENTS
• My new poem improves the message of the
original poem by letting the reader identify
the theme much easier.