Exploring imagery in ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ and ‘Ghazal’
Add your own ideas to the metaphor map below.
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What connections, associations or connotations are suggested by each of the words?
What might they symbolise or represent?
Can you colour code the imagery according to which poem it’s from?
Sustains life
Rhyme
Grass
Water
Warmth, pleasure,
beauty
Imagery
Sunrise
Iron fist
Laurel
leaf
Moon
Bay trees, laurel
wreaths, crowns worn
by Greek and Roman
heroes – victory
Connotations bank:
Here are a few suggestions to get you started, but remember that you don’t have to use all of
these, and should aim to add your own.
love
strength
warmth
hardness
light
distance
togetherness
freshness
beauty
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Each poem is about a relationship: ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ explores a mother-daughter
relationship and ‘Ghazal’ explores a romantic one. The imagery tells us something about these
relationships. Read the following explanation:
I think that when Grace Nichols says ‘you were water to me’ she is talking to her mother. As
humans we need water to survive, and as a child, the poet needed her mother to survive. She
then says that the water was ‘deep and bold and fathoming’. This list of three words means that
the mother was strong and understanding. The word ‘deep’ makes me think of the ocean, which
could represent the mother’s love, showing that it is deep as well.
Choose one of the other images used by either Nichols or Khalvati, and explain why you think the
poet has used this imagery.
I think the poet has used the metaphor of …
How is the imagery in these poems similar or different? Which of the following explanations do you
prefer, and why?
a) The imagery used in these two poems is the same and shows how people get on with each other.
b) The poem ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ uses natural imagery such as water, the moon, and the
sun to show that the mother was everything to the daughter, whereas the poem ‘Ghazal’ uses a
greater range of imagery to show the different aspects of their relationship.
c) In the poem ‘Ghazal’ the metaphor of the iron fist suggests domestic violence, whereas in ‘Praise
Song for My Mother’ Nichols uses imagery of the earth which means they support each other and
give each other life.
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