Ode To My Mother's Hair Analysis

Register to read the introduction… I. Home as refuge/protection
In Ode to my Mother’s Hair by Joseph Legaspi and The Road Back by Pak Chesam, home is expressed as a matter of refuge and protection. The two poems are similar in the fact that “home” is defined as a symbolic figure, which is the mother. For example, in the poem Ode to my Mother’s Hair, the comparison of the mother’s hair as “dark as cuttlefish ink,” (Legaspi 9) signifies a mother’s natural instinct when danger is sensed. This analogy provides a vivid imagery on a mother’s character in that they would defend and protect, like a cuttlefish secreting ink, when danger lurks. Legaspi powerfully integrates dramatic use of diction and metaphors of the narrator’s mother as the nurturer and protector; which symbolically emphasize qualities of home. The poet highlights on “teetered and threatened to split open,/exposing the diorama/of our barely protected lives” (Legaspi 11); which indicates that although the family was living in poverty, the mother had the strength to protect the children. In the event of when the mother’s hair was cut off after the father disappearance, signifies an identity renewal for the mother’s role. She now …show more content…
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