Poem 1 - My Mother at Sixty Six Class 12 English Flamingo

Key Points of the Poem

• Authored by the renowned poet Kamala Das, My Mother at Sixty-Six of Class 12 English is a poem depicting human relationship. 
• Human relationships are complicated and this poem does a brilliant job of eliciting the same through its verses. 
• The summary of My Mother at Sixty-Six for Class 12 English will depict how the author has captured the nurtured bond between a daughter and her mother. 
• The poem dwells on the feelings of the daughter who fears losing her mother. 
• My Mother at Sixty-Six Summary provides an overview of the poem and what the author is trying to portray with the words.

Detailed Summary  

The poem My Mother at Sixty-Six begins with a daughter observing her mother closely as they begin their journey towards the Cochin airport. The author paints a very vivid image of how the mother has aged and as she describes the same, she also mentions the fear lurking in the mind of the daughter, the fear of losing her mother. The author describes the mother’s face as whitish, sleeping with an open mouth, which she says is almost comparable to a corpse.
The sudden realization pangs at the heart of the daughter and she chooses to shift her attention by looking outside the window of the car. The scenery outside provides an upliftment to the daughter’s mood. The huge trees with the freshly sprinted green leaves, children playing cheerfully represented life, energy and vigor. Here, we see that the narrator is drifted back to her own childhood days where she remembers her mother as beautiful and young. This is in sharp contrast to the present scenario and this makes the daughter’s heart heavy.
As we read through the poem, we know that the daughter has reached the airport, where she is saddened by the fact that she has to depart from her mother. The author sees her mother in the backdrop of the dusky evening as begins to bid farewell. Here, the narrator compares the mother’s smile to the winters’ late-night moon. The poet has beautifully illustrated the sense by comparing the image of the aging mother with the light of the moon being obstructed by the haze and the fog. This metaphor is a representation of the old age of the mother.
We then see that the pain of separation makes the daughter more vulnerable as she is terrified of losing her mother unexpectedly. The daughter’s heart is filled with emotions of grief and she is overwhelmed at the thought of separating from her dear mother. However, we see that the daughter puts on a brave face and quietly smiles. She keeps her hopes up of seeing her mother and bids farewell to her mother with the words, “See You Soon, Amma”.
The narrator thus prevents the environment from getting too emotional and painful. Also, she does not want to leave her mother teary-eyed. The author says that the daughter wishes that her mother also lives her life fully and happily.
To summarize, My Mother of Sixty-Six is a beautiful poem describing the beautiful bond between a daughter and her mother. The key takeaway from the summary of My Mother at Sixty-Six is that aging is a process that is bound to happen inevitably. The journey of an individual starts in the womb of the mother. As a child, a person is full of life and is energetic and gradually the child becomes an adult. Eventually, the person moves towards his/her old age and then embraces death. This is the cycle of life. The author of My Mother at Sixty-Six does a great job of depicting how relationships between individuals become more consolidated with age. The thought of losing someone dear and close is unbearable and the author has beautifully depicted the same through the words of her poem. 

Conclusion  

Here, we have provided you with a summary of My Mother at Sixty-Six. The poem is an ode to the deep emotional bond shared by a daughter with her mother. My Mother at Sixty-Six Summary highlights the fear of separation in the mind of the narrator as she is confronted with the fact that her mother is approaching old age. The poem concludes on a high note as the daughter is hopeful that she will be reunited with her mother soon. The feelings of fear, anxiety, grief and hope have been vividly portrayed by the author in the poem.

Literary Devices

Imagery
Merry children spilling out of their homes: youthful and exuberant, spring of life-contrast to the morbid atmosphere inside the car – the old mother weak, frail, inactive.
Personification
Young trees sprinting – the sprinting movement of the trees rushing past signify youth, life or passage of time. The mother – travelling in the car-lifeless, helpless decayed by age. Her instinctive awareness leads to the familiar ache-painful realization of helplessness (cannot share her fears with her mother-fear stemmed out of unknown-didn’t want to worry her)-fear of separation-that childhood fear-inherent in all children-of losing one’s loved ones-fear of death.
RePetition
Smile and smile and smile: emphasis on the fact that she made a desperate effort to cover UP her guilt, anxiety and agonizing thought of her mother’s impending death by putting up a smile to bid her a cheerful adieu.
We highly appreciate your feedback regarding My Mother at Sixty-Six Poetic Devices. Please feel free to share your thoughts how you feel about this.

Difficult Words

Word - Meaning

•  Driving - operating a car, steering 
• Doze - nap, snooze
• Open-mouthed - agape, gaping
• Ashen - very pale, greyish
• Corpse - dead body, remains 
• Realised - understood, grasped
• Pain - ache, discomfort
• Sprinting - dashing, rushing
• Merry - joyful, happy 
• Children - kids, youngsters
• Spilling out - emerging, overflowing 
• Standing - upright, on feet 
• Yards - units of length, 3 feet
• Wan - pale, weak 
• Pale - light in color, not dark
• Late - not on time, delayed
• Old - not young, aged
• Familiar - known, recognized 
• Ache - pain, discomfort