My Mother at Sixty-six

My Mother at Sixty-six — Kamala Das

Introduction

"My Mother at Sixty-six" is a deeply personal poem by celebrated Indian poet Kamala Das, included in the CBSE Class 12 English textbook · Flamingo · . Written in free verse, the poem captures a single, emotionally charged journey — a drive to the Cochin airport — during which the poet contemplates her aging mother and confronts her own fear of loss. The poem is a meditation on mortality, love, and the helplessness of watching someone we love grow old.

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The Poem: Structure and Form

The poem is written in free verse — it has no fixed rhyme scheme or meter. This structural choice reflects the natural rhythm of thought and emotion. The poem flows as one long, unpunctuated (or minimally punctuated) sentence, mirroring the uninterrupted stream of the poet's consciousness during the drive.

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The poet is in a car with her mother on the way to the Cochin airport. She looks at her mother's face and is struck by how aged and pale it looks — "ashen like that / of a corpse." This comparison triggers the old, familiar "childlike fear" she has known since childhood — the fear of losing her mother.

To cope with this fear, the poet deliberately looks away from her mother and focuses on the world outside the car window — young trees sprinting past, merry children playing. These images of youth and vitality are a psychological escape from the disturbing reality of her mother's aging.

At the airport, as she prepares to leave, she smiles and tells her mother she will "see her soon" — a phrase that carries more hope than certainty. Her final look at her mother is described as looking at "her wan, pale / as a late winter's moon."

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Key Poetic Devices

• Simile:
• "Her face ashen like that of a corpse" — directly compares the mother's pallor to a dead person's face, shocking in its honesty.
• "pale as a late winter's moon" — the mother's face is like a winter moon: dim, cold, fading.

• Imagery:
• "Young trees sprinting" — personification combined with kinetic imagery; the trees rushing past represent youth, energy, and life — a contrast to the mother's stillness.
• "Merry children spilling out of their homes" — joyful, energetic images of new life.

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Themes

1. Aging and Mortality:
The poem confronts aging without sentimentality. The mother's "ashen" face, compared to a corpse and a late winter moon, forces both the poet and the reader to face the inevitability of death.

2. A Daughter's Fear:
The poet revisits a "childlike fear" — the primal, deep fear of losing one's mother. This fear is described as "familiar" because it is lifelong, not new.

3. The Inadequacy of Words:
The poet's parting words — "see you soon" — are a small, inadequate offering against the enormity of her fear. She knows these are words of comfort as much as conviction. The smile she offers is both genuine and an act of courage.

4. Nature as Solace:
The vibrant images of trees and children are not mere description — they are the poet's way of emotionally resetting, of temporarily moving away from grief to continue functioning.

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