“Praise song for my Mother” A* Critical Analysis Notes PDF

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These revision notes are A* at A Level, providing rich and extensive critical analysis of the poem. These notes go beyond A Level, noting insightful points for different aspects of the poem, namely the language, structure, themes, rhyme and imagery. They cover the whole poem in immense detail and ar...

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“Praise song for my Mother” Grace Nicholls A* Critical Analysis Notes LANGUAGE:

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‘moon’s eye’ -> The poet’s use of the Earth’s satellite for a description – that which regulates the seas and oceans – could be to reflect how her mother is her satellite, always there to keep her on the right tracks, monitoring her in a maternal way. Through this analogy we observe where she has positioned herself in life: not circling time nor a place nor a job but a planet in her mother’s orbit who reels her back in if she ever strays from her path. We get the impression she may have a fixed fate set out for her due to the fact that this is the moon she uses. ‘eye’ – may refer to an eye of a storm, her mother is perhaps a calming presence and whenever the daughter is in deep water her mother knows how to sort her out both physically and emotionally. This instance and on many others Nichols assigns words carrying multiple meanings to mirror the multi-faceted humble magnificence of her mother: like a broken mirror she shows us from all the different angles in the broken shards her mother, and all of them show her as a truly remarkable woman.

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‘flame tree’s spread to me’ ‘mantling’ -> This element shows how she gave her shade, comfort and relief. Her mother shields her and offers her reprieve when she is getting burnt from trouble or under scrutiny. She knows she will be protected by her mother – ‘mantling’ -, she is her safe haven when things get tough, her protector. We see her mother also has power and she wields it for good and does not allow it to overpower her or usurp her moral righteousness.

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‘the fishes red gill’ ‘/the fried plantain smell’ -> Not only does her mother give her life, but these quotations establish a sentiment of familiarity and homeliness. It reminds her of blissful home and of her childhood in Guyana with the sensorial images of its smell: everything reminds her of mother. ‘gill’: With this we learn Nichols’ mother is necessary, vital like breathing to the poet, implying she cannot live without her. She is trying very hard to stop herself getting into a loop as the memories start getting more detailed so she conscientiously stops herself with punctuation – ‘/’ – to interrupt the flow, to prevent getting carried away and repeatedly going back in time and living through it all again, getting lost in her past happiness but perhaps as she does not end the poem with punctuation she remains locked in her past unable to detach herself from it nor her mother.

FORM/STRUCTURE:

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‘You were… to me… and… and’ -> The repeated use of anaphora emphasises how reliable her mother was, never altering her perception of her nor changing her love for her daughter no matter the situation. The verb ‘you were’ in the past tense reminds us she is not there anymore with her, and the repetition shows how she keeps on drilling it into her head: perhaps to remind herself she is gone, perhaps because she wants the pain to hit her full on. The poet uses listing of attributes to describe the unending talents of her mother. We get the impression she tries to let it run free and let her grief flow, yet at the end it catches up with her as it is overflowing and taking over her.

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Rhyme, no punctuation: ‘fathoming’ ‘mantling’ ‘streaming’ -> The lack of punctuation shows there is no stopping to how she feels, no rest from the love overflowing within her. The unending bond she has with her mother refuses to be severed by death nor separation just like the persistent rhyme scheme; their love will never run out – her daughter’s heart beats on for her mother’s life -, it will always flow which is hence depicted here with the lack of barriers and obstacles – no punctuation stops her from taking a meander down memory lane. There will never be an end to her feelings, they will run on infinitely and eternally as there is no ‘.’ or ‘,’ cutting off her train of thought.

We also see a progression from less personal things to more personal places and objects, perhaps expressing how she is getting lost in her world and is losing touch with the real world and things around her. Instead she turns in on herself, desperately trying to remember every single thing about her mother. VOICE/TONE:

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‘Go to your wide futures, you said’ -> The tone here denotes how grateful, nostalgic, admiring and slightly woeful she is with regards her mother. This is where the poem cuts off, devoid of a full stop. She has been complimenting her mother and how much she did for her and she then finishes it off by trying not to look back. Her mother’s only wish in return is for her daughter not to dwell on the past but to live her life and look forward rather than back: she may end the poem promptly without even looking back to check the last bits of grammar purposely to display the fervour of her

promise.

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‘water’ ‘moon’ ‘sunrise’ -> She uses elements of nature perhaps to denote the beautiful and unforced bond they shared. Her mother was a constant, her whole world in fact, and it makes us wonder what her life will be like if she hasn’t got her mother’s omnipresence in her life anymore however, this could be arguing that she will still feel her mother’s presence in all the elements around her: this may be a way of showing that she will not fully lose her mother and will be able to live on as she sees her mother in every natural phenomena. The continuity of water and the necessity of it reflects her mother’s impact on her life and one can imagine the feeling of her loss – the loss of the sun – her light -, the moon – her balancer of emotions and body – and the loss of water – her sustenance. At every corner she is reminded of her loss, of sad and happy times with her mother. She uses terms we are all familiar with to make this a universal feeling as one’s ties to mothers is a human phenomenon, just like these components are relatable to everyone; she may also do it to enable us to tap into her point of view and access her personal grief through a communal tie between every single human: our planet. This may be the objective of her poem, by mentioning all these relatable events she succeeds in getting us to understand this can happen to everyone and is a part of all our lives and we will feel this struggle as acutely as we would miss the sun or the moon if they ceased to exist....