🌈 My Mother at Sixty-Six – Class 12 English (Flamingo Poetry)

📖 About the Poet

• Kamala Das (1934–2009) – One of India’s most celebrated poets writing in English and Malayalam.
• Known for confessional poetry, exploring personal experiences, relationships, and human emotions.
• Themes often include love, family, ageing, identity, and nostalgia.
• Style is simple, direct, and emotionally powerful.

📜 Summary of the Poem

(Point-wise, colourful notes for clarity)

1️⃣ The Journey Begins

• The poet is driving her mother home from the airport.
• Her mother is tired and resting, reflecting her age and fragility.

2️⃣ Realisation of Ageing

• The poet glances at her mother and notices her white hair and pale face.
• She feels a sudden fear of losing her mother, realising that time has made her mother weak and vulnerable.

3️⃣ Moment of Reflection

• The poet is reminded of her own mortality and the fleeting nature of life.
• She compares her mother’s face to a “late winter’s moon”, highlighting pale beauty, vulnerability, and inevitability of ageing.

4️⃣ Emotional Conflict

• Mixed feelings of love, guilt, and fear overwhelm the poet.
• She feels sad that her mother is ageing and that she may soon lose her.
• The journey becomes symbolic of life’s transient nature and parent-child relationships.

5️⃣ Conclusion / Realisation

• The poet experiences a moment of self-awareness about time, ageing, and familial bonds.
• She resolves to cherish every moment with her mother.

🌟 Themes

1. Ageing and Mortality – Recognising the inevitability of growing old.
2. Parental Love – Emotional bond between mother and child.
3. Fear of Loss – Anxiety about losing a loved one.
4. Time and Transience – Life is fleeting; moments with loved ones are precious.
5. Confessional Emotion – Poet’s personal reflection and vulnerability.

🎭 Figures of Speech / Poetic Devices

• Simile → “Her face, ashen like late winter’s moon” – compares mother’s face to a pale moon.
• Imagery → Visual depiction of mother’s ageing and frailty.
• Personification → Time and ageing as inevitable forces affecting human life.
• Tone → Sad, reflective, affectionate.
• Symbolism → Winter moon symbolizes frailty, mortality, and transience.

✨ Important Lines & Explanation

1. “I look at her, and my heart tightens”
   👉 Expresses poet’s sudden fear and emotional reaction to her mother’s ageing.
2. “Her face, ashen like late winter’s moon”
   👉 Visual imagery and simile depicting pale beauty and fragility.
3. “But my mother sits quietly, oblivious of time”
   👉 Highlights generational difference; the mother is calm while the poet is anxious.

📚 NCERT Questions & Answers

🔹 Short Answer (30–40 words)

Q1. How does the poet perceive her mother’s age?
👉 The poet notices her mother’s white hair, pale face, and tiredness. She feels that age has made her mother fragile, vulnerable, and nearing the inevitable stage of life.

Q2. What feelings does the poet experience while observing her mother?
👉 She experiences fear, love, anxiety, and nostalgia. She is aware of time passing and the temporary nature of life, which makes her cherish the moment more.

Q3. Explain the simile ‘ashen like late winter’s moon’.
👉 The mother’s pale, frail face is compared to the pale, cold winter moon. It symbolises fragility, ageing, and the poet’s emotional concern.

🔹 Long Answer (120–150 words)

Q. Discuss the theme of ageing and parental love in the poem.
👉 In “My Mother at Sixty-Six”, Kamala Das beautifully captures the poet’s realization of her mother’s ageing. While driving, she observes her mother’s white hair, pale face, and tired body, feeling an overwhelming fear of losing her. This moment leads to reflection on the ephemeral nature of life, evoking both anxiety and love. The poet cherishes the parent-child bond and recognises time’s relentless passage. The simile “ashen like late winter’s moon” poignantly illustrates vulnerability and the inevitability of ageing. The poem is both confessional and universal, exploring themes of mortality, emotional attachment, and human concern. Through simple yet powerful language, Das communicates deep feelings, making readers empathize with the fleeting nature of life and the importance of treasuring loved ones.

📝 Extra Questions for Practice

1. How does the poet use imagery to show ageing?
2. Why does the poet feel anxious about her mother?
3. What is the significance of the winter moon simile?
4. Write a character sketch of the mother based on the poem.
5. How does the poet convey the theme of mortality and time?
6. Explain the emotional tone of the poem.
7. Discuss the parent-child relationship depicted in the poem.
8. How is the poem an example of confessional poetry?
9. What message does the poet convey about cherishing family moments?
10. How does the poem contrast the perspectives of mother and daughter?

🌸 Conclusion

“My Mother at Sixty-Six” is a reflective, emotional, and relatable poem. Kamala Das captures the poet’s feelings of love, fear, and anxiety on observing her mother’s ageing. Through vivid imagery, similes, and a confessional tone, the poem emphasizes life’s transience, the inevitability of ageing, and the precious bond between parent and child. It is both personal and universal, evoking empathy and reflection in readers, making it a memorable and important poem in the Flamingo curriculum.