Mother Who Gave Me Life Analysis

Show how the poets you studied this year use one or more of the following to express their ideas and emotions: Imagery

The ability for an individual to communicate their point of view or emotion accurately is strengthened through the use of imagery. Authors often use imagery to make their points of view or emotions clear to the reader to make a statement on a theme. Seamus Heaney and Silvia Plath use contrasting imagery to explore their individual experiences of pain, whereas, Gwen Harwood and Wilfred Owen make strong use of familiar imagery to connect with the reader as they make statements on the truths of motherhood and war.
Heaney and Plath use contrasting imagery to express their individual pain as well as the pain of others. Heaney’s

In “Mother Who Gave Me Life” Harwood uses the folding of linen as imagery unique to mothers and relatable to many to express her positive views on motherhood based on her feelings towards her own mother. In contrast to “Mother Who Gave Me Life”, in “In the Park” Harwood explores womanhood through the point of view that a woman is a martyr to her children. In “Mother Who Gave Me Life” Harwood expresses her love for her mother as she admires “a fabric of marvels folded” throughout the “thirty thousand days” that her mother lived. Harwood brings imagery of time and folding fabrics together to state that motherhood is an eternal practice passed on from mother to daughter. In “In the Park” Harwood similarly uses clothing images to present an alternate view through imagery of a mother sitting in a park with “her clothes out of date”. This indicates that the woman no longer has the time or money to indulge in taking pride in her appearance and that her dedication to motherhood is responsible. Both poems contrast the mother against a lover to make meaning. Harwood has a previous lover pass the woman in “In the Park” to contrast the life with children and the one without. Harwood has the lover create a “small balloon” of thought where the previous lover thanks “the grace of God” that he is not in the same position as the woman. The image then takes form as a conversation void of meaning as the woman tries to convince herself that her life is not miserable as “it’s so sweet to watch them grow and thrive.” After the lover leaves, however, Harwood has the woman come to an understanding that the children have in fact “eaten [her] alive” and she has lost a once possible good life. Harwood uses familiar imagery to communicate her perspectives on motherhood clearly with the