Summary of My Mother at Sixty Six

 

 About the poetess and the poem: Kamala Das is Indian poetess. She has written number of poetry and books on women and their problem. She is known as a bold lady and always speaks out her feeling towards the society. The present poem is about her mother’s feeling and her childhood memory. She felt painful when she observed her mother sad and lost in the thought.

 

Summary: The poet was driving from her parent’s home to the Cochin airport last Friday morning. Her mother was sitting beside her. She was sixty six years old. The old lady was dozing. Her mouth remained open. Her face looked pale and faded. It was grey like ash. It looked lifeless like a corpse (dead body).

The lifeless and faded face of her mother pained her heart. The old lady seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. The poet turned away her attention from her mother and looked outside. The world outside was full of life and activity. The young trees seemed running fast. The children looked happy while moving out of their homes.

When they were at the airport, they had to undergo a security check. The poet was standing a few yards away from her mother. She looked again at her old mother. She felt pained to look at the colourless, lifeless and pale face of her mother. Her face looked faded like the late winter’s moon which had lost its shine and strength. This aroused the old familiar ache in the poet’s heart. Her childhood fear overpowered her again. However, she controlled herself. She appeared to be normal. She scattered smiles on her face while saying good bye to her mother. She wished to see her old Amma again.

Conclusion: in this poem, it is pointed out that the elder people always expects something from young generation. So we need to pay attention towards them. Sometime they feel alone like poetess’s mother and lost in their thought. So it is better to share something memorable with them so that they would feel better and pleased. This poem rightly raises old ageing issues.

Poetic device:

       A) Her face ashen like that corpse : 

      Simile – face compared with dead body’s ash

     B) As a late winter’s moon and felt that old: 

    Simile – pale face compared with disappearing of moon

 C) All I did was smile and smile and smile…… : Repetition- smile word is repeated.