My Grandmother Essay -- English Literature

My GrandmotherThis poem explores the relationship between the vocalizer and hergrandmother. It focuses on the remorse and vice she felt - andperhaps does still feel - about the way she behaved towards her on oneoccasion, and can be seen as an attempt to exorcise this.The poem is separate into four parts the first stanza describes hergrandmother working in the shop the second the incident which causesher guilt the third stanza shows her in retirement. In the finalstanza, later her grandmother has died, the speaker reflects onherself and her grandmothers life.The first stanza sets the scene - the antique shop reflects thecharacter and life of the grandmother. The words it kept her suggestthat it seems, to the speaker, her only reason for upkeep thegrandmothers concern is with surface appearance (polish was all)not with deep human feelings (there was no need of love). Hersolitariness is suggested in the fact that it is only her ownreflection she sees reflected in the antiques it is these she livesamong, not people. The antiques themselves create an oppressiveatmosphere - they are faded and heavy in this stanza, and in thefinal stanza the tall/ Sideboards and cupboards in the long, narrowroom take on the air of coffins. Even the sounds of the words thespeaker uses contribute - the sibilants in the brass/ Salvers and silverbowls are unwelcoming to the reader, and perhaps betray herdisapproving attitude to the shop.But to the grandmother the antiques have great importance. They areneeded, though never used - they are a substitute for humancompany, a replacement for love. She takes pride in her possession ofthem the speakers wish not to be used/... ... presuppose that the women is treating thegirl identical she was an antiqueIt was perhaps I opine a wish not to be usedlike antique objects ....In stanza three I think that you can see all the memories actuallybeing revealed to the grandchildAll her best things in one tong narrow roomIt gives us the sense that af ter she had passed aside now the guilt isjust kicking in and the old womens life has just began to open.In the very stand up stanza I think that the very last chapter in the oldwomens life is beginning to come to an end. Nothing is left in memoryof her..and no finger marks were thereI think that now her life is over and that her family have beenexcluded, their lives have had a fundamental change and new dust hadjust began to settle over the rather dust-covered possessions she seemd tovalue over her children and grandchildren.