UNIT-I

Grandmother

- Ray young Bear

Summary
               “Grandmother” is written in nostalgic tone. In the poem, the poet has tried tomanifest his intimate relation with his grandmother. The love and affection that sheshowed towards him in his childhood (it is obvious she is no more with the poet), is stillimprinted on his mind and heart. To depict the closeness of their relation the poet hassuccessfully utilized two new tools in the poem - a) conditional sentences, and b)sensuous images.The poet boasts that he was so intimate to his grandmother that if he got even aglimpse of her from miles away, his sense of sight would immediately recognize that itwas his grandmother by observing her purple scarf and the plastic shopping bag. He wasso familiar with her that he could also distinguish that the “warm and damp” hands thatwere put on his head were of nobody else but of his grandmother. It was not that he couldonly use his sense of sight or sense of touch to identify his grandmother. His sense of smell and sense of hearing were also equally capable of recognizing her. He couldrecognize his grandmother from “the smell of roots” that her hands gave off.Most importantly, the words of his grandmother were a source of inspiration for him. When he used to hear her words, it used to flow inside his body and revive his loststrength and vigour. He has compared its effect with stirring the ashes of sleeping fire toregenerate fire. Fire is the source of energy, light and clarity. Similarly, when the poetused to hear her words it used to fill him with new energy, hope, and erase all hisconfusions. In other words, her advises were a source of motivation for him.

Q. 1. What images do you find in this poem written by a member of the Sauk and Fox(Mesquaki) Indian tribe of North America? To what senses do these images appeal?

Ans. The poet has used the sensuous images as effective tools in this poem. As a resulthe is successful in creating a vivid picture of his grandmother. These images particularlyappeal to our sense of sight (if i were to see …), sense of touch (if i felt …), sense of smell (with the smell of roots.), and sense of sound (if i heard …). The poet, through theuse of these sensuous images has tried to express how much he loved and how close washis grandmother to his heart.

Q. 2. How does the speaker feel toward his grandmother? In what words or lines does hemake his feelings clear?
Ans. Use summary.