When I read Bradstreet's poem, I knew immediately that she was comparing her 8 children to birds and that she was describing the "empty nest syndrome" that mothers typically face as their children grow up and leave her house. I think that that comparison works very well for Bradford.
She wrote, "I nursed them up with pain and care,/ Nor cost, nor labor did I spare,/ Till at the last they felt their wing,/ Mounted the trees, and learned to sing," (lines 3-6). I think she wrote this to show that she is proud of what she could accomplish as a women and how strong women have to be to have children.
Throughout the rest of the poem is where I really saw her struggles with "empty nest syndrome". Her children were getting older and leaving home, just as when birds learn to fly the leave the nest. I think she was just sad to see that all what she had put all of her hard work and all of her love into was leaving her nest.
She wrote, "Farewell my birds, farewell adieu,/ I am happy if well with you," (lines 93-94). She is proud of what her children have become and what they are doing wit there life, so as long as they are happy, she is too. However, like all mothers, I feel that no matter how happy her children are she wishes that she could have them forever.
To cope with that she wrote all about what her children were up to and accomplishing, both to show how wonderful she thought her children were, as well as a way to show others that what her children have become was mostly because of her. So, I feel that she is proud of her children, but also extremely proud of herself as a mother.
-Jessica Mitchell
I wrote about this poem too and I completely agree with you. I think she loves her children very much and does a good job of portraying how you should take care of them so they are raised with a well enough mindset to have kids of their own. I think any mother would love to keep their kids forever. I know I make jokes with my mom that if I don't do anything with my life I am just going to live on her couch because I know my mom would never kick me out because she loves me so much. I think this poem does a good job showing a mothers love for her children
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of summarizing what Bradstreet was talking about throughout this poem. I'm sure one of the hardest parts of being a mother is teaching them, and giving them everything they need, and then having to take a step back, and let them fly away. It is a part of motherhood that often is forgotten about. As a child, you can't wait to grow up, and move on to bigger and better things, and of course your mother wants that for you too, but it has to be so hard to let your kids go. I totally agree that she wrote this poem to cope with her "empty nest syndrome" because, when you've spent so much of your life raising 8 children, what do you do when they've all grown up? She had every right to be sad about them leaving, but also every right to be so proud of not only her kids, but herself as a mother. Motherhood isn't often described in the way that Bradstreet did, and I really think it gives us so much insight into the other sides of motherhood that we don't often see.
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