Lament

The poem opens with the command “Listen, children:” (Line 1). The statement is an addressed command accentuated by the placement of a colon after the word “children” (Line 1). The colon placement after the word “children” signals that an explanation is about to follow. It also works with the command “Listen” (Line 1) and the noun “children” (Line 1) to establish the poem’s authoritative address. The mother continues her explanation using blunt language. She continues, stating “Your father is dead” (Line 2). Structurally, the poem begins expanding at this point, and the mother establishes the premise of her explanation.

At this point, the poem’s tone shifts from one of bluntness and reality to practicality. The mother focuses on providing for her children. The line structures remain short and emphatic. She states, “From his old coats / I’ll make you little jackets” (Lines 3-4). The mother’s focus on repurposing the father’s “old coats” (Line 3) is not only pragmatic, it is also one way for her to make sure her children have something by which to remember their father. The mother continues, stating “I’ll make you little trousers / From his old pants” (Lines 5-6). By emphasizing “jackets” (Line 3) and “pants” (Line 6), the mother is making sure her children are fully clothed. At a figurative level, these acts are symbolic because they show that the mother is willing to go above and beyond in order to provide for the children, using what resources her husband left behind to support her family.

The mother’s focus, as well as the poem’s, shifts to the materialistic elements of life. The mother tells the children, “There’ll be in his pockets / Things he used to put there” (Lines 7-8). The pockets are another layer to the father’s existence, because in them he carried “Keys and pennies,” (Line 9) simple items that are significant since they represent different types of security provided by the father. The mother’s insights about the father’s existence deepens as she tells the children that the “Keys and pennies” (Line 9) are “Covered with tobacco” (Line 10). The “tobacco” (Line 10) adds a coarseness to the father’s character, one of masculinity and the working class. Tobacco use among men was common during the 1920s. It did not become popular among women until 1929, when tobacco companies began heavily marketing to women, a trend that continued well into the 1930s.

The speaker establishes a familial hierarchy as she begins naming what child will receive which items from their father. She first establishes that “Dan shall have the pennies” (Line 11), and he will have them “To save in his bank” (Line 12). By placing the money into Dan’s custody, even at a young age, she is establishing Dan’s role as the head of the family. To her daughter, Anne, the speaker bequeaths “the keys / to make a pretty noise with” (Lines 13-14). The mother portrays Anne as something ornamental, a person to be observed rather than to be relied upon for security. The mother’s portrayal objectifies Anne while giving financial agency to Dan. During the 1920s, American women faced a significantly challenging time. Women were expected to perform domestic roles like keeping house, caring for children, and providing emotional support and stability for their working husbands. Some married women also held jobs, yet all women were expected to contribute to American society in a myriad of ways. Over time, these domestic and social expectations became less and less compatible with one another. The mother’s assertion that “Life must go on” (Line 15) represents the incompatibility of the woman’s domestic role society expected at the time and her own ability to grieve for her husband and find her own emotional support. At the same time, the mother was also balancing society’s expectation that “the dead be forgotten” (Line 16). Her bluntness seems harsh and callous, and she repeats “Life must go on” (Lines 15, 17, 21) three times. She objectively reveals a sentiment about how she felt about her husband as she expresses “Life must go on / Though good men die” (Lines 17-18). In these lines, the mother maintains her composure despite her grief.

As the poem concludes, the mother returns her focus to the children. She commands, “Anne, eat your breakfast / Dan, take your medicine” (Lines 19-20). The mother’s tone and expectations are practical and focused on what must happen in the moment. She reiterates, “Life must go on” (Line 21), and then expresses confusion: “I forget just why” (Line 22). The final two lines blend the mother’s practicality and fortitude with her emotional conclusion. This blending forms an abrupt ending, and it provides a commentary on the mother’s individual response to grief when it is subordinated to society’s expectations that one quickly move past their grief. Allowing oneself to mourn and grieve involves significant departures from certain attitudes about normal life, and by the poem’s end, the mother questions why she must adhere to what society says about grieving. This questioning reinforces the mother’s confusion, and it allows readers to probe society’s expectations about death and mourning and female roles in not only the home and the family, but also society.