“Praise Song for my Mother” was published in Grace Nichols’ first poetry collection I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983). The anthology was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983 and was adapted into a Channel 4 film and BBC radio play. The anthology focuses on the memories and experiences of Afro-Carribean women, particularly those of an unnamed speaker who relates the cruelties and brutalities of slavery. Compared to the other poems in the anthology, “Praise Song for my Mother” features a more personal and contemporary subject.
The poem is identified as a “praise song,” which is an African poetic tradition that addresses an object through a series of flattering descriptions. Nichols employs metaphor as the primary form of description in the poem.
