Mother of the Groom

    For our final assignment in our World Literature class we have to present a poem by Seamus Heaney and give our interpretation of it. I choose the peom Mother of the Groom and here is my interpretation of it.

MOTHER OF THE GROOM

 

What she remembers

Is his glistening back

In the bath, his small boots

In the ring of boots at her feet.

 

Hands in her voided lap,

She hears a daughter welcomed.

It's as if he kicked when lifted

And slipped her soapy hold.

 

Once soap would ease off

The wedding ring

That's bedded forever now

In her clapping hand.

 

 

     I believe that this poem is about the mother of the groom on her son's wedding day and rather then feeling joy she is sad and cold knowing that her son will be away from her. In the first stanza it talks about the memories that the mother had about her son as a child. One in particular is of bathing him and the joy that she had with him. In the second stanza it talks about the mother having to let go and her realizing that her son is growing up and she is going to have a new daughter. I think the word voided refers to empty or bare which is how the mother is feeling about losing her son to another women. The last two lines of the second stanza refer to the mother's feeling of her dropping her son because of her soapy hand. Her son being married gives her the feeling that she has lost him. Finally, the third stanza tells the mother's prediction of her son's marriage. She thinks that the marriage isn't going to last. This is from the lines, "once soap would ease off the wedding ring." The mother believes that no other women will be able to care for her son as good as she has.