Symbolism In Mother By Ted Kooser

Have you ever felt loss so deep that everything you see is different just because that person is gone? In Mother by Ted Kooser the speaker’s mother’s death made his world view more sorrowful. Through this view of the world Kooser uses symbolism, personification, and imagery to show the speaker’s feelings about his mother dying. Symbolism is used in many different ways throughout this poem to present the speakers feelings on his mother dying. Her vibrance is shown in the lightness and happiness of nature. His sadness is shown in the darkness of nature. “You have been gone month today/and have missed three rains and one nightlong/watch for tornadoes”(lines 8-10). In this part of the poem he says how long she has been gone for. He uses the storms to show how long and how different it has made him feel. The tornadoes are all the things that have been

“Exuberant, jubilant green/of new grass”(lines 3-4). Grass cannot be exuberant and jubilant but it can be extremely bright when spring has just arrived. The next quote is a perfect usage and example of personification. “A storm that walked on legs of lightning,/dragging its shaggy belly over the fields”(lines 13-14). A storm cannot have legs or shaggy belly, but this personification is used to create a more vivid picture in your mind. It makes you see how upset he truly is about his mothers passing.This could possibly represent his mother at the end of her life, if she had a terminal illness or something of that nature. This next example of personification displays the large difference between before and after the mother’s death. “Fat spring clouds/went somersaulting, rumbling east”(lines 11-12). The spring clouds resemble his mother, while the somersaulting and rumbling resemble him. He is wrestling over his mothers death which explains the somersaulting and