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What is the significance of the poem "A Sweet Sad Turning Of The Tide" by Maude Meehan?
This is the poem:
My Two young sons
move with assurance
through the maze
of ropes and sails,
steer out of turbulence
to calmer seas,
drop anchor .
They climb the mast;
my body tanses
with past apprehension.
Suddenly one dives ,
I plummet with him ,
breathe again
when he emerges
The small boat pitches
as he hoists aboard.
I glance up swiftly
to the swaying crossbeam
where his brother
perched, confident .
As heavy mist rolls in
they guide the light craft
back to the harbour , and like my hands
old maps lie folded on my lap .
Reaching the laddered dock
they stretch strong arms
to steady me. When did
this turnabout occur?
I have become a passenger
on their journey .
Exactly what is the author trying to say? What does it mean?
The writer says that when our children are young, we look after them; then, when we are old, they look after us.
The piece uses the usual metaphor of a sea voyage as a symbol for life. (The metaphor is usual in English because England is an island nation). It opens with the narrator worried about her two young sons who are about to set out on the Voyage of Life:
The sons - who are young and confident - are fearless:
My Two young sons
move with assurance
through the maze
of ropes and sails,
But their mother is naturally concerned as they face the challenges of life (here symbolised by diving from the mast into the lagoon):
They climb the mast;
my body tenses
with past apprehension.
As usual, youthful ability triumphs, and the mother's frets are assuaged:
Suddenly one dives ,
I plummet with him ,
breathe again
when he emerges
The poem then pootles on aimlessly on the general theme: 'I am a mother, so I worry about my children'. (It looks as if you have omitted a verse or three after 'where his brother / perched confident').
Then at the end, the mother understands that while her sons were growing up, she has grown old - and that she is now a burden to them:
I have become a passenger
on their journey .
.....
The poem expresses a familiar concern (our children grow up while we grow old) in familiar metaphors (life as a sea excursion) using familiar language. It probably exercises a therapeutic function for the author, and perhaps also for the less demanding of its readers. It is 'postmodern' in the sense that it is literature as a social activity rather than poetry as a quest for the truth.
It can be compared to other important comfort literature - such as John Pomfret's The Choice. It is typical of mainstream current American writing.
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