In Memory of My Mother
In Memory of My Mother - meaning Summary
Memory Resists Burial
Kavanagh refuses a simple graveyard image and instead remembers his mother in vivid, everyday scenes: walking to the station, urging him about the cattle, going to Mass, and moving through market streets. Pastoral and domestic moments anchor her presence as alive and enduring. Memory transforms ordinary gestures into spiritual continuity, so the speaker finds her active among harvest ricks and moonlight rather than inert in wet clay.
Read Complete AnalysesI do not think of you lying in the wet clay Of a Monaghan graveyard; I see You walking down a lane among the poplars On your way to the station, or happily Going to second Mass on a summer Sunday-- You meet me and you say: 'Don't forget to see about the cattle--' Among your earthiest words the angels stray. And I think of you walking along a headland Of green oats in June, So full of repose, so rich with life-- And I see us meeting at the end of a town On a fair day by accident, after The bargains are all made and we can walk Together through the shops and stalls and markets Free in the oriental streets of thought. O you are not lying in the wet clay, For it is harvest evening now and we Are piling up the ricks against the moonlight And you smile up at us -- eternally.
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