“MOTHER LOVE”The Title poemBy Rita Dove

About the poem Form – Lyric; A double sonnet (28 lines);

however, the indented lines gives that the previous line is continuing, therefore, also giving the impression that this is actually a single sonnet – a version of inverted Italian sonnet

Persona – Demeter Situation in the poem – She remembers what it

is like to care for a child from birth, watching them grow to adulthood. She confesses what she in her attempt to care for an infant boy entrusted to her by his mother.

About the poem This poem records the state of Demeter’s

mind after having lost Persephone to Hades.

It records the psychological scars of a mother after a child is lost and her desperate efforts to remedy the pain that comes with that loss.

Mood – reflective; disturbing Tone – bitter

Themes/Issues in the Poem Feminism: Women as Victims of Sexual

Exploitation Motherhood as instinctive Child rearing

Stanza 1The sestet

Stanza 1Demeter tells us what it

is like to be a mother. She points out that the job is instinctive, one that an experienced mother never forgets and only gets better at.

The purpose of this stanza is to explain the reason for her actions in stanza 2

Stanza 1“Who can forget the

attitude of mothering?”

A rhetorical question

Demeter expects that we all should know that once one becomes a mother, the task becomes a habit. The love lasts forever.

Stanza 1“Toss me a baby and without

botheringto blink I’ll catch her, sling him on a hip.” (2-3)

Stanza 1“Any woman knows

the remedy for grief is being need: duty bugles and we’ll climb out of exhaustion every time, bare the nipple or tuck in the sheet, heat the milk and hum at bedside until…” (l. 4-8)

Stanza 1“…they can dress themselves and rise,

primed for Love or Glory – those one-way mirrors girls peer into as their fledgling heroes slip through, storming the smoky battlefield.” (l. 8-12)

Stanza 1 Fledgling – (1)a young

bird that has just developed wing feathers that are large enough for flight; (2) denoting an inexperienced person.

Oxymoronic – a hero is usually experienced, responsible and mature – someone to look up to.

“Fledgling heroes” (line 11)

Stanza 1 “Love or Glory – those one-way mirrors

girls peer into” - metaphor “Love or Glory” – the men who girls look

to for acceptance are referred to as Love; the rest of the world who looks on to admire these girls, is referred to as Glory.

Stanza 1 Meaning – girls are

groomed and bred, it seems to please men or society; they eventually grow up to look to the rest of the world or their significant other for affection, acceptance and a sense of identity

Stanza 2The octave

Stanza 2 An allusion to the Greek myth when

Demeter seeks to care for a human boy baby, whose mother had left in her care, but harms him in the process.

Demeter tells us that it was instinctive for her to want to take care of the baby boy when his mother came to her. She wished to cure him so that he would not be guilty of cruelty as other men are .

Stanza 2

“I decided to save him” (line 21)

Fire as a source of curing/cleansing

Demeter seeks to burn away any impurities that would make the boy-child grow up to make the same mistakes as adult men.

Stanza 2 “a baby sizzling on a spit as neat as a

Virginia ham. Poor human to scream like that, to make me remember.”

Stanza 2 “a baby

sizzling on a spit as neat as a Virginia ham.

Simile – a shocking comparison between a baby and a piece of meat roasting over fire;

• The image shows an image of cruelty and makes us quite concerned about Demeter’s mental state

Stanza 2 “Poor

human to scream like that, to make me remember”

Stanza 2 “Poor

human to scream like that, to make me remember”

The mother’s screams, as she witnesses what Demeter does to her son, remind Demeter of her own screams, her own pain, when she discovered that Persephone was abducted.

She feels the mother’s pain and sympathizes with her.