Mother of the Groom by Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, born in 1939 and died in 2013, was an Irish poet who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He is also a famous playwright, translator and lecturer and he has won many awards for each position.

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.


Throughout the poem, the reader can detect the speaker's tone of reminiscing as well as of anger and resentment. The poem is about a mother's feelings when her son is getting married. In the first stanza she fondly remembers bath time when he was a little kid which shows that she misses even the simple things about her son that are no longer a part of her life. She reminisces about this time that was so long ago and how she had him all to herself. The second stanza is the point at which the tone shifts from being wistful and remembering to jealous and angry. In the poem the mother's lap is empty (symbolizing that the son is gone... getting married) and it is empty because of a "daughter welcomed." The mother is jealous of the bride because she gets to be with her son and takes away from their mother-son time. The next line says, "It's as if he kicked when lifted and slipped her soapy hold." This represents the son's willingness to leave from his mother and that only incites more anger within her. The third stanza is almost like the mother's warning. "Once soap would ease off the wedding ring" shows that the mother believes strongly that the marriage will end in divorce and the mother and son can resume become close again. This shows her resentment and jealousy because as a mother she should be happy for her son that he is getting married, but instead she awaits that day that his marriage fails.
Just like any other work of poetry, the tone is developed primarily through the diction. Words like "glistening" and "ring" evoke happy thoughts in the mind of the reader, supporting the reminiscent tone but words such as "voided" and "slipped" produce unhappy thoughts which supports the idea of anger and resentment.