Over the past two weeks, my ability to read and understand poetry has improved. Now, I can better understand deeper meaning and emotions, especially in themes of loss and conflict. Reading poetry was never an easy task for me, and I always thought that poetry is simple writing with random picked words. Gwendolyn Brook’s poem ” the mother” has been important in this growth. What caught my interest was the title ” the mother”, which is written in all small caps. That intrigued my curiosity to learn deeper meaning to this poem. Her focus on grief, guilt, and the struggles of motherhood connected with me. The poem deals with fate and choice, This new understanding of how to read a poem will better direct me onto reading the ” Oedipus the King” , as Greek plays, stories and mythology requires some type of background history, as everything in the play might have a meaning.
It is difficult for me to directly quote from poet ” the mother”, but I will paste 1st stanza of the poem for references.
2 thoughts on “Michal Piencioszko week 7”
Hello Michal, I am really interested to hear a man’s perspective of this poem so thank you for choosing this poem to reference. A subject that I personally enjoy is Greek Mythology, it is fun to learn about the different Gods and how they relate to one another. When reading “Oedipus the King” I found it fun trying to dissect what the chorus was asking for depending on which God/ess they referenced.
Michael, you did quote from the poem by pasting a portion into your post. But can you offer any interpretation of some of these lines? Also, I’m interested in your comment about how having background information helps readers understand Oedipus. Can you explain this a bit?