My Mother at Sixty Six is a poem by Kamala Das in which she explain their deep and emotional thought of passing age of her mother. Here we provide detailed summary of this chapter.
Title of Poem My Mother at Sixty Six
Title: The title of this poem signifies the old age of author’s mother as she is in the dusk of her life.
Theme of My Mother at Sixty Six
Theme: In this poem poet has explained the natural phenomena of aging, decaying & death with the help of an incident of travelling with her mother. This shows a strong bond between her mother and her daughter where she has a fear of separation & loss due to the advancing age of her mother.
Summary of My Mother at Sixty Six
Synopsis: Poet in the poem describes her mother and presents her image in front of us, poet is on her way to with her mother sitting beside her poet compare the face of her mother with her mouth wide open & face in yellowish and colourless. as she struck with the horror of losing her which shows a strong bond of affection between a mother & a daughter so to keep away those negative thoughts and to divert her mind. she starts looking outside the car window and the sea outside the car window is full of energy & positivity. As she sees trees moving with a great place in the opposite direction and children coming out of their home in a good number for playing and enjoying the vitality of life. After reaching there she once again take a look of her mother’s face which is still pale and colourless due to lows energy level and compares her face to that of a late winter’s moon which has low intensity of light due to log as mist. with this she deals with the old childhood fear of losing her mother from her side. At last she bids farewell to her mother in a hope of seeing her again soon. Keeping a smile on her face hiding her face from insecurities so that not to upset her mother.
Genre or tone: The tone of the poem is sensible (Reflecting deep and serious thoughts) and sorrowful.
Question and Answers of My Mother at Sixty Six
How Does Kamala Das try to put away the thoughts of her aging?
While travelling by path poet observe her mother face which is dull and pale and she compares her face to that of corpse so to divert her mind she starts looking outside the car where she observes tree moving fast in the opposite direction and children coming out of the house for fun and playing.
What were Kamala das fears as a child? Why do they tensed when she is going to Airport?
As a child Kamala das was insecure about losing her mother as all young children often are. The same feeling are evoked inside her while she is on the way to airport as she observes her mother’s face, which is assign of her old age and approaching death.
What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signified?
While going for security check she observes her mother’s face, again and there is no change in her face as dull as earlier. To bid farewell to her mother she smiles the first smile signified hope. Second smile show that she will come back she find her mother in a good condition and last smile signifies a false and fake expression not to upset her mother.
Why has the poet brought in the image of merry children spilling out of their house?
Poet, want to convey the thoughts of senility that comes because of advancing age and a charm of young age. Mother taking a nap with mouth wide open seems like a dead body.
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