# To My Mother explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Voltairine de Cleyre.

## What happens

The speaker contrasts his mother's inward, reserved nature with his own need for open expression and vitality, acknowledging that without the joy and love of life, he feels dead. He accepts the inevitability of death and the grave.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Loss

The speaker's tender address to his mother reflects deep familial love, while the meditation on death and the grave introduces loss.

### Death and Mortality

The poem contemplates the inevitability of death, the 'long, still sleep,' and the grave.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who contrasts his own need for open expression with his mother's reserved nature.

### Mother

The addressee, depicted as a heart that cups its perfume inward, living with brightness hidden.

## Key lines

> Some souls there are which never live their life; Some suns there are which never pierce their cloud; Some hearts there are which cup their perfume in, And yield no incense to the outer air.

Some people never fully express themselves, like suns hidden behind clouds or flowers that keep their fragrance sealed inside.

_Describes the mother's inward, reserved nature._

> But I⁠—I need blue air and opened bloom; To keep my music means that it must die; And when the thrill, the joy, the love of life is gone, I, too, am dead⁠—a corpse, though not entombed.

I require open space and expression; if I suppress my creativity, it dies. Without joy and love, I feel lifeless even before death.

_Contrasts the speaker's need for outward expression with the mother's inwardness._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters/to-my-mother
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters