Summary
In Grace Nichols' "Praise Song for my Mother," the speaker describes her mother using a series of several metaphors with roots in the natural world. She begins by describing her mother as water, with a powerful and revealing effect on the speaker. Next, she uses a different metaphor to describe her mother as the eye of the moon, with an enveloping, gravitational pull. The third stanza characterizes the speaker's mother as the sunrise, with a warm energy that streams over the speaker.
In the fourth stanza, the structure of the poem shifts slightly and three metaphors come in quick succession. First, the mother is a fish’s gill, a breathing organ vital to underwater survival. Then, the mother is the brilliant flame tree, a plant known for its striking scarlet leaves. Then, the mother is the smell of crab's leg and fried plantains, smells which have a replenishing effect on the speaker.
The fifth and final stanza is a single line—a quote from the speaker's mother to the speaker, which urges the speaker to go into her wide future.
Analysis
“Praise Song for my Mother” is written from the first-person perspective of an unnamed speaker, who is presumably Nichols herself. The poem is written in free verse, which means it doesn’t have a consistent meter or rhyme scheme and instead follows the rhythm of natural human speech. From the title, this poem is identified as a praise song, which is an African poetic form that aims to praise and honor its subject through flattering descriptions.
In this poem, Nichols describes her mother in a series of several metaphors (seven in total) drawing from nature. The metaphors in the first three stanzas follow the same structure, which is an example of anaphora, a form of repetition in which the beginning word is repeated: “You were / [ ] to me / [ ] and [ ] and [ ].” The last word within this structure is also a word ending in -ing. This structure is modified in the fourth stanza, keeping the same element of “You were / [ ] to me,” and repeating the “ / to me” twice.
This repeated structure has a compounding effect on the reader. Through the different metaphors, the speaker appears to be redefining her relationship during the composition of the poem. The repetitive use of “and” in the third line of each stanza has an additive effect, as though the speaker is attempting to encapsulate the mother’s entire being in three eclectic adjectives. Note also how the poem is in the past tense—“You were” is the exact phrase by which the speaker relates to her mother, signifying that this specific form of the relationship does not exist anymore. This implies that the mother has passed away, which lends an elegiac quality to the poem. Moreover, nostalgia is a primary mood of the poem; the metaphors selected (such as water, sunrise, or plantains) evoke the memory of the mother in commonplace, everyday situations.
The first stanza begins by describing the mother as “water to me.” Water is necessary for the survival of life, so this metaphor encapsulates the innate and primal need the speaker has for her mother. Nichols characterizes the water as “deep” and “bold,” which are adjectives that can describe both the movements of water and that of people. The water is also “fathoming,” which suggests that the mother has the ability to penetrate and understand the depths of the speaker and other people.
The second metaphor characterizes the mother as a “moon’s eye.” This interesting possessive structure (rather than “eye of the moon”) emphasizes the figurative body part over the moon itself. By focusing on the eye, the moon—already an omnipresent orbital companion to the Earth—is given a watchful, even surveying characterization. The adjectives in the third line attributed to this moon’s eye are more abstract and obscure than those of the previous stanza. “Pull” could describe the moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth and, concomitantly, the Earth’s gravitational pull on the moon. Her mother could have a similar pull on the speaker due to her charisma or a sense of filial duty. “Grained” could describe the rough and cragged face of the moon, as opposed to a smooth surface. This could relate to the mother’s aging face as time passes, again signifying nostalgia on the part of the speaker. “Mantling” has several varying definitions, most literary or archaic. In this context, it could be read to suggest the moon’s enveloping or cloaking presence around the world.
The third stanza contains a metaphor likening the mother to “sunrise.” Sunrise is the primary, originating fact of each new day, which could suggest that the mother precedes the speaker in going through life’s stages. It also could be related to the relationship between mother and child: after childbirth, the mother is typically the first to see and interact with the child. The repetition of “rise” amplifies the uplifting effect the mother has on the speaker. “Warm” is both a temperature and a characteristic attribute—the mother could have both a warm body temperature and/or a warm demeanor. “Streaming” could describe the radiating effect her mother’s energy has on the speaker.
The fourth stanza marks a shift in the anaphoric structure of the poem by compounding four metaphors into one stanza. The first metaphor characterizes the mother as the “red gill” of a fish. Gills are the breathing organs that fish use to extract oxygen from water in order to survive underwater. In this way, the speaker emphasizes her innate, biological need for her mother—akin to the necessity for oxygen. The underside of a fish’s gill is often pink or red, and this color is also conjured by the next metaphor: the flame tree’s spread. Flame trees have bold, brilliant red leaves that resemble fire. This suggests that the mother too has a striking effect, perhaps based on her natural beauty. In the final line, Nichols evokes the senses of taste and smell—first crab’s leg, a rich, flavorful seafood, and then the smell of fried plantains, which are a staple food in many diets around the world, including in Guyana and other parts of tropical northern South America and the Caribbean. The effect of these flavors is “replenishing replenishing.” This repetition emphasizes the power of the mother’s lingering and nourishing effect on her daughter.
The last stanza is a single line, a quote from the mother to the speaker. The mother urges the speaker: “Go to your wide futures.” This is a direct line of encouragement about how much life and opportunity the speaker has in front of her. It also could be an allusion to the “future” that comes after the end of the poem.
