The Mother

3 Pages 782 Words

The mother
Abortion. One of today’s greatest controversies is all summed up in one poem. “The mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about abortion and emotions that the mother feels by making such a decision. The mother feels content and little regret about the abortion. Hell, one should feel so lucky to.
In the whole first stanza the narrator is telling others how she feels about not being a mother; perhaps she is giving advice: “You will never neglect or beat/them, or silence or buy with sweet….” The narrator means that if one chooses to have an abortion she won’t have a chance to do all the things other mom’s have the chance to. For example, she will never get to punish or spoil a child.
The second stanza is also from the mother’s point of view: “I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children.” She hears them, and they still live with her. When she says, “I have contracted. I have eased” the mother has come to an agreement and is free from worry, pain, and discomfort. Going through day after day, knowing that the mother has killed an innocent baby, she finally realizes that it was her choice and came to an agreement with herself that she doesn’t need to worry anymore. The second portion of the second paragraph is a vital and powerful section of the poem. The line “And your lives from your unfinished reach,” could mean several things. One idea is that the mother may not have reached a goal in life, which she had planned on before the abortion happened. After having an abortion, many people feel guilt, regret and depression. Another meaning is that the child hasn’t had a chance to get a goal to not reach.
The third stanza presents a small sense of regret from the mother. One of the lines in the third stanza is “If I stole your births and your names, / Your straight baby tears and your games, /Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages,...