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

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.