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Stanza has some very powerful and forceful images. (a) What is compared to a – leech?(b) How is it a leech?(c) What is unusual about the use of the word ‘leech’d’?(d) Why is B in ‘Birth’ capitalized?(e) For whom is birth a hell (a) for the mother (for all her pain and suffering during the birth of her child)(b) for the son (who feels that it was because of his birth that his mother died, though partially) (c) for both |
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Answer» (a) The baby inside the mother’s womb… (b) It sucks on the life of the mother. (c) The word ‘leech’d is used for a parasite-like creature which feeds on the other and destroys it. Usually, babies who are entirely dependent on their mothers are referred to as leeches. But here the poet feels his mother has suffered a lot with every baby she carried, and hence he has been like a leech when he was in her womb. (d) Birth is a very significant moment in the life of a baby or an individual because it signifies the separation of the baby from the mother and the need for the baby to- fend for itself to a certain extent. It has come out of a warm, protective cave into a cold, harsh world. (e) (c) for both |
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