Poems: Mother and Daughter

Motherhood What is motherhood? Being caring and having patience are the main two components that make a good mother. In the poems “Daystar by Rita Dove and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan both of the mothers are going through different stages of motherhood. In both poems we see the similarities that both poems have and we also see the differences. Dove and Pastan show us an early stage of mother and a late stage of motherhood. Although they are different stages of motherhood, they are both tough stages to go through. The similarities that both of the poems have are that both mothers are in the mother hood stage. The mother in Dove’s poem is the mother of young ones. As the reader, I know this because in the second line of the poem it says “but she saw diapers steaming on the line”(514). The mother in Pastan’s poem is a mother who is having a difficulty letting go of her daughter. She explains the difficulty through a memory she had when her daughter was eight. The memory of her daughter’s first bike ride and her watching her daughter ride the bike with no help of her mother.
Another similarity is that the mothers in the poems are going through tough times in motherhood. The mother in Dove’s poem is an individual who wants a break from all her responsibilities as mother. She wants to able to enjoy herself before she has to attend her children or to do the chores around the house. The mother in Pastan’s poem is going through the tough time of letting her daughter leaving the house for the unknown reason. The differences that both these poems have is that one of the mothers is watching her daughter leave the house which means she is no longer going to have to be responsible for her daughter. The mother in the other poem is at the beginning stage of motherhood. She has more responsibilities than the other mother. The mother in Dove’s poem is not only taking care of her children but she also has the responsibilities of wife. She has to not only

Cited: Dove, Rita. “Daystar”. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York. 10th Ed. 2011. 514. Print Pastan, Linda. “To a Daughter Leaving Home”. The Norton Introduction To Literature. New York. 10th Ed. 2011. 515. Print.