Reflection: “B” is a beautiful poem that salutes the
invisibility of a mother to a daughter’s life. How befitting that this piece is
being reviewed on a good Friday, April 6th, 2012 – the day the whole
Christianism especially in the Philippines is reflecting on the passion of
Jesus Christ and the agony of the Virgin
Mother while witnessing her only son being tortured to death yet she refused to
abandon Him when everyone else did.
“B” mirrors the Virgin Mother’s predicament as well, just
not as heavy as the agony she experienced, but it is a mother’s positive
anticipation to supporting her daughter while dealing with life’s conditions.
The speaker wants to follow her mother’s footsteps in raising her own daughter.
She is looking forward to being a mother who will give an assurance to a
daughter that there will always be a mother to fall back on when life gets
rough.
The Tone and the Form
“B” is a poem that can be considered sassy but sincere.
Two opposite words that suitably describes the tone of the poem. Sassy is a
word that one can associate to a vibrant girl. Incidentally, the poet is a
22-year-old young woman, hence, the use of a playful expression such as: “You
will put the win(d)some, lone some”, “put the star in starting over and over”, “on
a scale to one to over-trusting” and some words that can be normally associated
to a young woman such as: “Band-aids”, “chocolate”, and “boats” to mention
some.
The other tone, sincere, reflects the poet’s deep gratitude
and respect to a mother who raised her well. The pet even quoted her mother’s
advice that says: “There’ll be days like this, my mama said.”
On the other note, “B” has an open form or a free verse
as to poet wants to convey her thoughts narratively. Any other form would only
limit the thoughts and the message of the poem.
The Words and the Symbol
“B”, literally is the second letter of the alphabet which
is singularly meaningless, however, as a title of this particular poem, “B”
could create an extensive symbolic meaning. Some of these could be: beginning,
bestfriend, buddy, bosom, and bond. From among these possible meaning, “beginning
“ is symbolically more appropriate in connection to the poem. Remember that the
poem is basically about a woman’s or shall I say, a mother’s expectation to
having a daughter. A mother is the beginning of a daughter’s life and everyone
in general, always goes back to their beginning: the mother.
Whatever the daughter goes through as she deals with
life, which momentarily keeps her away from her mother – the love or heartache,
ambition, happiness or sadness, success or frustration, triumph or defeat- she
will always has a mother to return home to.
The Language
“B” is rich in idioms and figurative language that add
beauty and substance to the poem. Some examples of the idioms are:
“ I know that at the back of my hand.”
“Don’t keep your nose up in the air.”
The first one means being familiar with, while the second
one means being boastful. Almost every line, in fact, is a connotation.
Personification and metaphor are the elements of figurative language that are
commonly used in the poem. Two distinct examples of these are as follows”
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the
ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s swept
away.”
The ocean is given a person’s attribute – that of the
actions “refuses’ and “kissing” hence, this is
clearly a personification which is a classic attribute to human’s
determination to succeed in his goal no matter what the barricade is nor how
many times the goal keeps getting out of reach.
“This world is made out of sugar: it can crumble easily,
but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.”
The above quoted lines are an example of metaphor – the
world is compared to sugar. People need sugar to make whatever food taste
sweet. In the poem, it is temptation that can lure people to failure, however, the
would-be-mother in the poem, encourages her daughter to taste it (to make the
living or the process of growing up complete?). It’s part of life.
The Theme
The theme that could easily comes to mind after reading
the poem is:
“Mothers know best”. However, this is a clich矇 and it is
much better to veer away from the common for such an uncommon poem. Hence, “The
home is where safety and love begins, and a mother will always be a daughter’s
home.” is the theme that comes to be considered.
Nowadays, most children are irritated when their parents “interfere
“in their affairs, if not too late, that this interference is the protection
and affection of their parents.
This review is written by Prof. Marissa T. Aquino, Christ
the King College, Calbayog City, Samar, Philippines.
