Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks One

¶ … Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks

One of the most striking things about the poem "The Mother" is that it speaks of abortion with a poignant angst and regret, and yet makes it clear that the speaker in the poem is a woman who has had multiple abortions. Therefore, the entire poem is cloaked in ambiguity. It begins with a woman's statement: "Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get." (Brooks).

However, the conclusion of the poem makes it clear that, at some point in time, the woman has forgotten something about abortions, because she has done this more than once. The speaker makes it clear that she is not speaking of an isolated incident when she says, "If I stole your births and your names." (Brooks). In fact, this ambiguity permeates the entire poem.

Initially, the reader gets the impression of a woman who deeply regrets the fact that she killed her child and who is aching because of her missed opportunities to mother her children. The woman says "You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh, Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye." (Brooks). This is such an apt description of how a mother feels about her children, that one is immediately given the impression that here is a woman who has had an abortion and who carries the ghost of her child with her on a daily basis. Furthermore, one is left with the impression that here is a woman who is completely aware of what she is missing by making the choice not to have a particular child. However, the speaker makes it clear that, even with that knowledge, she has made that choice more than once. Despite that, the speaker tries to make an appeal to these unborn children, by telling them, "If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate." (Brooks). Such a statement undermines the entire concept of choice. Here is a woman who makes it exceedingly clear that she is aware of the consequences of choosing to have an abortion, that she has made that choice multiple times, but that she wants to be absolved from the blame for those choices.

Even more striking is the speaker's statement that she loves all of the children she aborted. The language of the poem certainly seems structured to convey the image of motherly love. She speaks with longing and regret about the things her children will never do, such as the baby games and giggles, growing, marriage, and love. However, the speaker begins by making it clear that she is not romanticizing motherhood. She speaks of children she will never beat or neglect, as well as missing the rewards of motherhood. These statements seem aimed to convey the speaker's understanding of what she may have done to her children if she had chosen to carry them.