My Mother at Sixty Six

My mother at Sixty Six

In this poem, Kamala Das explores the theme of advancing age and the fear of loss and separation from a dear one, with the realization that the parting may be forever. A sense of guilt, fear and heartache grip the poet as she bids goodbye to her aged mother, apprehensive that this may be their last meeting, yet she hopes for the better.

While driving from her parent’s home to Cochin, she notices her mother sitting motionless besides her dozing, her face pale and drained of all colour, life like a corpse. This reminds her painfully that her mother has grown old is nearing her end and could pass away leaving her alone. Unable to bear the gloomy and oppressive thought she seeks to evade it by looking out of the window at the young trees speeding by and children running out of their homes happily to play. Their youthful energy, exuberance and the velocity of life outside are in sharp contrast to the mood in the car and reassure her.
But after the security check at the airport, looking back at her mother standing a few yards away, she finds her looking pale and bereft of vitality like the winter moon. The poet feels that familiar pain and childhood fear at the thought of losing her mother and of being lonely just as she had felt when she was young. She could only keep smiling to conceal her fears as she did not wish to transmit her anxiety to her mother. She tell her ‘see you soon’ knowing full well that she might not see her again.

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The poet compares her ageing mother to a ‘winter’s moon’ as her tired face seemed as pale, faded and bereft of vitality and life.

The ‘old familiar pain’ refers to the heartache that the poet had experienced ever since childhood when parting from her mother, each time with the fear that it may be forever. It was intense now as her frail mother was in the dusk of her life and nearing her end.                                                                                             1m

The poet hid her fear that this parting could be forever behind a smile and said-‘see you soon, Amma,’ so that her mother would not apprehend her anxiety. The words show her brave effort to reassure herself and her mother that all was well and they would meet again soon.                                                                                                                                                                                     2m