# Mother — Poetry character guide

> Mother in Poetry by Voltairine de Cleyre.

**Role:** minor

**Also known as:** Mother—I

**First appearance:** 0004-to-my-mother

## Who they are

The narrator's mother, addressed in a personal and emotional poem.

## Relationships

### [Death](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/characters/death)

_rivalry_

Death and the mother have a single, tense interaction, likely representing the conflict between life-giving and life-ending forces.

## In the story

### [The Christian’s Faith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters/the-christian-s-faith)

The mother is implied in the context of mourning and grief, as Christ addresses 'all ye mourners, weeping for the dead.'

### [To My Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters/to-my-mother)

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

### [Betrayed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters/betrayed)

Mary, mother of Christ, is imagined as a figure who might pity the narrator's pain, unlike Christ himself.

### [Bastard Born](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/chapters/bastard-born)

The deceased mother, revered as pure and loving, buried on a hill; the speaker seeks solace at her grave.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/characters/mother
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_24_se/characters