Poetry Analysis of The Song of the Old Mother, The Affliction of Margaret and Ulysses

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Poetry Analysis of The Song of the Old Mother, The Affliction of Margaret and Ulysses The poem starts with the old mother telling us how she usually starts her day at dawn. Lighting the fire (which I believe would be used for the rest of her jobs). Then she scrubs the room (using water heated over the fire?), then bakes (again using the fire.) and then sweeping up. By the she has finished all her work, the stars are coming out again - "beginning to blink and peep". The young people meanwhile are able to "lie long", dreaming of "matching" ribbons on their clothes and in their hair. In truth, they are lazy. And because of this I can say that the family life that this family receives may not be very good. While the mother works all day to look after her children, they do nothing. It shows a lack of respect. The poem ends with the image of the fire's going cold. This may possibly be a metaphor for the loss of energy that comes with old age. It is a reminder of how the next day will start - and every other day of her dreary, dull life. Like the speaker in Thomas Hardy's The Man He Killed (and unlike say the speaker in My Last Duchess) this is not a specific individual. Indeed she may represent, in some way, all old women in all times and places. The title of this poem (The Affliction of Margaret) and the fact that the speaker is a mother makes it clear that the speaker in this poem isn't the poet, and most probably an imaginary character. She begins by speaking to the missing son, asking him what he is doing and where he is. She says that it has been seven years without response from him. (At this stage it again could show a lack of respect for the mother, therefore a bad family life.) Then she describes what a model child he was and thinks about how, in the past, she used to worry that he would neglect her.

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