Analysis of "The Mother" & "The Man He Killed"

I selected to analyze Gwendolyn Brooks "The Mother" because I was drawn to its content due to personal experience. The subject matter of the poem is abortion. The narrator of the story is a mother who has aborted not one, but several of her children, "I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children" (line 11). Though her children have been long aborted she cannot seem to get the images or voices of the children out of her head.

The poet's careful use of words such as "stilted", "pulps" and "scuttle" convey the true feelings of the narrator in relation to the abortion. "Stilted" supports the fact that the narrator views the abortions as a self-conscious yet unnatural act. She utilizes the word "pulp" to describe the fetuses as soft moist shapeless matter removed from her body. "Scuttle", as in to scrap or discard, describes the actions the narrator has taken in getting rid of the fetuses.

Brooks' "The Mother" is written in the Clerihew form of poetry, named after inventor Edmund Clerihew Bentley. This form of poetry is a four-lined poem wherein the name of the subject appears in the first line of the work, "Abortions will not let you forget". The first line is the premise to the work, which states that the memories of the children are still apparent in the mother's mind.

The rhyme scheme of "The Mother" is written in (a)(a)(b)(b) form. The rhyme sound in the first line is forget which is repeated at the end of the second line with the word get. Remorse and personal reflection is the tone of the work, "Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate" (line 21). It is through this line that she directly explains her actions to the children she aborted.

 "The Man He Killed"

 

My analysis of "The Man He Killed" did not appeal to me due to the subject matter of war and death.

The narrator is a young soldier, who had he not been unemployed and penniless, would not have enlisted in the war. "Off-hand like--just as I---Was out of work--had sold his traps" (lines 14, 15). This passage infers that young men viewed war as a positive opportunity without understanding the true meaning or sacrifices of war.

Hardy utilized words such as "nipperkin" and "half-a-crown" to convey the attitudes of many young soldiers going to war. "You shoot a fellow down, You'd treat if met where any bar is" (line 19). The poet implies that it was common for young soldiers, enemies in war, to use drinking as a common coping mechanism as they faced  the duties of war.

The form of Hardys' "The Man He Killed" is written in a Quatrain stanza form wherein lines are grouped by four. With this stanza lines one and three may or may not rhyme; lines two and four most always rhyme. On the other hand, the rhyme scheme of the work is written in (a)(b)(a)(b) form. The rhyme sound in the first line is met (a), followed by the second rhyme sound inn (b)in line two. This pattern continues in line three with the word wet (a).

Though both poems speak to the idea of death I have contrasting views about the works. While both narrators speak remorsefully within the work "The Mother" aims to selfishly explain the poet's action in aborting numerous babies. "The Man he Killed", in comparison, speaks to the reader in stating that the soldier's only choice was to kill or be killed.