Praise Song for my Mother by Grace Nichols Essay

The numbers, as the name suggests is a song where the poet is enjoyment her relationship with her mother by making phthisis of simple notwithstanding powerful imagery. It is important to note that unlike the commemorative poems that are ordinarily written by Western writers, Praise for My Mother does not catch a requiem like e branchingiac mood. The overall tone of the poem is pleasant. Praise claim is a panegyric on the writers mother. in which she celebrates a woman who gave her both roots to grow from and locomote to fly with. Writing about her own mother, Nichols one time commented that she was a warm, intelligent, winsome woman who was full of stories, anecdotes and songs from her own childhood. People have a go at itd being some her and I cant remember a single twenty-four hour period when our home wasnt visited by some friend, neighbour or comparative who had dropped in just fuh sic minute but ended up staying hours. offset with the vocabulary, it is vivid but hard-hitting. The writer uses the images of water, moon and sun- all powerful symbols of nature, to account her mothers character which shows her strength of personality and the extent of her love and affection towards her.The blushful colour of the fishs gills is reminiscent of the maternal(p) love a break from the clichi d usage of the colour red in standard English literature where the colour is usually associated with sensuality. talking about the lyrical style, a look at the formative eld of knock down Nichols in Guyana may shed some light on her writing and choice of subject. She was born into a world of books and music. Her father was a head teacher and at home she was surrounded by books she was matter to by the kingdom of books and language.Her mother used to give piano lessons. The scratch 8 years of her life that she spent in a settlement left an imprint on her that shows in the poem as swell up the rhythm of music and the beat of pan, the call of the fisherman a nd the fruit vendor, the olfactory sensation of mud and salt when she went crab hunting (the crabs leg), the whole of the morning sky, the whole of the evening sky, (sunrise and moons eye). The poem is similarly repetitive, replenishing replenishing. The poet may have opted for this because it brings a backbone of childhood as a young child would repeat words.Nichols wants to use this effect because the repetitive content relates to a childs attitude, which allow hence recall the memories Nichols had of her mother when she was a child. Food is a actually important part of Caribbean socialisation and tradition. The home-cooked food is something that does not have any(prenominal) alternative. The writers memory of her mother is not complete without thought about or mentioning the food she used to cook. This intensifies the sacrifice that the writers mother had to make for her daughters brighter, Wide futures.As Nichols once pointed out, Like a beacon in capital of the United Kingdom, every now and then I get this craving for my mothers food. I chip in art galleries in search of plantains, salt fish, sweet potatoes I pauperisation this link, I need this touch of home, swinging my bag like a beacon against the cold. Praise song for my mother Fat Black char Tropical Death Grace Nichols puts the image across that the issue of culture is extremely important to her. Through her poems we understand that she is confused of her identity. When she moved to London she felt as though she was living in an alien world.Grace Nichols was longing for a cultural identity in Britain and she tends to describe Britain negatively and the Caribbean positively. This is why throughout the poems she applies her own dialect of Creole, which is the official dialect of the Caribbean. She also uses Creole because she feels as though she should preserve it. She maintains that her Caribbean language is genuinely raise and that Creoles aspects are very vivid which concludes her to believe that at that place is no equivalent in the English language.Nichols has successfully carved a niche for her culture and poetry in the existing canon of knotty poets and poetry by writing in a laymens register. This is a poetry that everyone can understand and read. This is a poetry that everyone can fall upon with. This is the poetry the Nichols has written for her countrymen, for her mother, for her roots- it is a tribute to her roots back at home. We get a clear sense of this in Praise Song for My Mother, in which she talks of a mother who is deep and blustering and fathoming and who replenishes her whenever she needs comfort.