Summary
With sellotape wrapped around her hand, the mother wipes cat hairs off her son’s uniform and smoothes down his collar. She tries to hide the expression on her face, but secretly wishes that she could “play Eskimos” with her son, a game in which the two would rub noses together. She also restrains herself from running her fingers through his hair, which is coated in hair gel. She feels that her words had escaped her.
Analysis
The second stanza expands on the mother’s memory of sending the son away, likely to war, using subtle details to construct an evocative, specific image of the mother and son. The reference to “sellotape” subtly establishes the British setting, as sellotape is a British trademark and brand for a type of transparent tape sold in a roll. The following line’s reference to “white cat hairs” weaves in another, more domestic detail—the family has a white cat—which heightens the sense of loss, as the son departs from both the mother and the cat. Echoing the structure of the first stanza, the second stanza moves further back through the mother’s memories: she recalls playing “Eskimos” with her son when they were young, when they would rub the tips of their noses together. This brief detail captures the sense of nostalgia and pain that the mother experiences as her son leaves for war. She wants to reenact a childhood game in order to metaphorically resurrect her son’s youth and innocence, contrasting with the adult role of a soldier that he now is taking on. Similarly, she restrains herself from running her fingers through his hair, which is gelled. Hair gel is typically used by adult men, or older children, and may also be used to create a “clean-cut” appearance for the military, further suggesting that the poem may be directly referring to a mother sending her son to war. Through these carefully chosen details, Weir conveys a strong sense of both family love and loss in this compact, eleven-line stanza.
The overarching tone in this stanza is gentle and soft, yet melancholic and haunting. The diction—”smoothed," ”softening,” “graze,” “gelled”—uses round consonants and vowels to emphasize the mother’s tenderness for her son. The mother’s actions are focused on healing (note the striking use of the word “bandaged” to describe the tape that she uses on her son’s uniform) and caring, which sharply juxtaposes with the concept of war. Simultaneously, the wartime circumstances themselves place pressure on the mother to conceal her tenderness. She describes herself as “steeling the softening” of her face. The use of the word “steel” recalls weaponry and warfare, contrasting with the remainder of the stanza, which focuses on a loving and gentle moment. By steeling her expression, the mother disguises her own emotion in front of her son; the stanza is rife with additional words signaling restraint, such as “wanted” and “resisted the impulse.” Like a nation in the face of conflict, the mother feels forced to suppress her own trauma and suffering in order to present a 'strong front.' The mother’s restraint also serves to build tension in the stanza by contrasting her inner emotional state with the external “steeling” of her expression.
