Direct Address
All of "the mother" is a direct address to an audience. The mother sometimes speaks to her reading audience, sometimes she speaks to herself, sometimes she speaks to her non-existent children. Thes...
Food and Hunger
There are a whole bunch of food and hunger metaphors in "the mother." Think our gal Gwendolyn was just really hungry when she wrote the poem? Well, think again. Her food and hunger talk is a way fo...