This poem begins with a metaphor comparing childhood to a
place where nobody dies. In the innocence of childhood, nobody really does die, the
author says. Oh, sure, old people die, and maybe your cat will die, but not important
people - not people that matter - certainly not your
parents.
The visual image I get from reading this poem is
that the author is a grown woman sitting at the table with her elderly mother, drinking
tea:
To be
grown up is to sit at the table with people who have died,
who neither listen
nor speak;
Who do not drink their tea, though they always said
Tea
was such a comfort
These
lines illustrate that the speaker is now grown up, but she is thinking back about how
easier it was as a child, when she didn't realize that people DO die, even parents. Now,
she is sitting at the table with an older person who appears to be rather senile, who
does not pay attention to her tea -- who does not really pay attention to
anything:
readability="11">
Shout at them, get red in the face,
rise,
Drag them up out of their chairs by their stiff shoulders and
shake
them and yell at them;
They are not startled, they are not
even embarrassed; they slide
back into their
chairs.
The speaker seems to
be frustrated with the elderly person - her mother, perhaps - and longing for a time
when she did not have to face the reality that her mother is old and won't be around for
long.
Does this help? Go over the poem and look for the
language that creates a melancholy mood and see if you agree with
me.
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