Mothers

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them.” A lot of parents have trouble in shaping their relationship with their children to a good or at least a manageable one. The poems “Daedalus” by Alastair Reid, “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, and “Pain for A Daughter” by Anne Sexton show the various perspectives of parents toward their children and the process on how they try to mold their character through their bond.

“Mother to Son” shows how a mother really cares for her son that she is able to give advice on how life is a struggle and wants her son to work hard to get to the top because the reward is worth fighting for. It tells us that the mother in the poem has a good relationship with her son since in the first line, “Well, son, I’ll tell you”, we can see that she is talking directly to her son and that they have no problem with communication. However, in “Pain for A Daughter”, we notice that the mother in the poem is talking about, rather than to, her daughter. It makes us think that she is merely observing the situation her daughter is in and did not even do anything to help or interact with her. The line “her father, hydrogen peroxide in hand, performing the rites of cleansing” gives us the idea that the father-daughter relationship is strong and well. This may show how some mothers have good relationships with their sons and difficult relationships with their daughters. Despite the differences on the intensity of the mother’s bond with her children, both poems show that mothers do want to strengthen their connection with their daughters as well. “and then she cries…Oh my God, help me! Where a child would have cried Mama!” describes the mother’s desire for her daughter to call on her even if she was only watching and examining her daughter.

Alastair Reid’s poem “Daedalus” and the previous two poems are similar in a way that the parents are still trying to figure out how their children are feeling and what they can do to help...