A Mother's Break by Merlinda C. Bobis Critique Paper | Analysis - THE SCRIVENER

Mother's Break by Merlinda C. Bobis

"warmest noons when she feels breathlessly

wedged between sink and bed,

she rips off apron and womb to strike a regal pose

under the infinity of strings of wash.

drenched in midday glow,

her colors show beyond her husband’s myth—wife, woman, whore at times—

but she is real now! stretching back and life in her thin housegown which missed its print of roses long ago,

she affirms her non-fictionness to sunlight,

she sniffs rather airily, and stamps her foot, perking up her ears to hear the earth resounding—

oh, but the roast is burning, and the youngest howling above the husband’s hungry call!

how well they learn their cues, she sighs,

flushed roses suddenly and hurrying, aproned with her womb again,

she rushes back to them, to all of them auditioning for love.”

Critique Paper

Weary in the midday warmth, thinking of dozing herself off or continuously enduring a bustling bodyꟷa woman in so often constant activities. She is equipped for endless chores. There shows a beauty of competence and beyond of how her husband’s view of her as his conventional inamorata. As her aged house gown is slipping through her body, the woman became readily unready. Of being true and alive, she embraced the verities within her and around. For a moment she breathed, she felt light. The sunlight then beamed onto her face trying to feel the realness of her own, of the surroundings. All the more she was awakened to the smell of her roast cooking as she was too awakened by the wailing of her child and the yowl of her husband. From there, she let out a sigh, putting on back her hats all together. Hurriedly, she chooses a choice of nothing but be a mother and a wife to attend her family’s ceaseless demands. 

The poem Mother’s Break delineates the daily haps of an aberrant woman whose character enacts nothing but the most significant role in the literary textꟷhence the subject in the given title. She wears multiple hats as she is being characterized as a lady of her own skin, a mother and a wife, all at once. The woman has several responsibilities and obligations on her shoulders which she is ought to deal with according to the own terms of her environment. Being a narrative poem as it is, the milieu speaks a great deal of significance, partaking through the entire text. The constant midday warmth indicates a confusing ambient to the protagonist of whether to slumber or to remain sedulous in her hearth: “Warmest noons when she feels breathlessly / Wedged between sink and bed,she rips off” (line 1-2). It is when she drenched her skin glowing naturally: “Drenched in midday glow, her colors show (5) as well as mentioned of having a roast that is being prepared for lunch leading to its external conflict: “The roast is burning, and the youngest/ Howling above the husband’s hungry call!” (16-17). As the mother was taking a breath for a moment from tremendous works, cues started to come through. The calls from both of her husband and child awakened her. Here, it clearly relays the message of the poem that time in general is a gargantuan part of the discord which then displays its correlation to the theme that is evidently seen throughout the entire poem: a mother’s love which knows no boundaries at all. Having a little to none rest, a mother’s break is a single breath of peace and light found in between chaos. 

To dive deeper and give more attention to the details, the literary theory which isbest utilized to intricately analyze the given literature as a unified whole is the Russian Formalism. As generally defined and characterized, this literary theory focuses on both the literariness and defamiliarization of the central literature. The poem uses formal devices to wholly display its literariness such as imagery. From the first line down to its last, imagery is noticeably used where it tends to create mental images vividly that intensifies its emotional effects on one. Through these sensory languages, each line is illustrated in mind accordingly that helps to thoroughly discern the theme, messages and the overall meaning of the literary work. Moreover, the focus of this type of language formally offers a great deal of experience to utterly catch the attention the psyche of the readers. It has comprehensively broadened the ideas and messages in the literary work. Yet, the experience is never complete without a sort of strangeness. As readers pass through the full chaotic experience of being a mother through the language, a moment of breathing pauses it all. A mother’s break breaks and defamiliarized the readers from the familiar ones which made every detail in the poem on point. 

The showed off work of literature by Merlinda C. Bobis narrates a relatable story to almost all of its readers. The poem can be considered to become universal as it offers the truth of life circumstances. Generally, the poem engraved a remarkable reminder for readers to cherish the gift of love through a mother’s point of view, beholding both the bliss and misery of being one.