12-11-2014, 05:06 PM
The narrative of this piece felt quite accessible/straightforward, which is an infrequent experience for me. To summarize my interpretation: the narrator wishes his/her mother would grieve openly in the same way he/she mourned for the junebug. Why the mother is crying, I'm not sure--perhaps the reason doesn't matter. For a moment, I almost wondered if the narrator was dead and watching his/her mother grieve as a ghost or something. I'm probably entirely off-base with that, haha.
I wasn't sure what to make of the lines "instead of refusing to look around for me, losing sight of her grief instead." In addition, the three repeated "instead's" sounded off to me; I think it's the structure of the last line of the first stanza that's provoking my negative reaction:
"instead of cooing to herself,
instead of refusing to look around for me,
losing sight of her grief instead." >> I can sense that the repetition might be intentional, but the last "instead" here falls flat for me.
A small change for this line:
"Like a death at a parade, my steps on grief intrude;" >> You could omit the "a" before "death," so that it reads a little smoother as "Like death at a parade, my steps on grief intrude."
Thanks for sharing!
I wasn't sure what to make of the lines "instead of refusing to look around for me, losing sight of her grief instead." In addition, the three repeated "instead's" sounded off to me; I think it's the structure of the last line of the first stanza that's provoking my negative reaction:
"instead of cooing to herself,
instead of refusing to look around for me,
losing sight of her grief instead." >> I can sense that the repetition might be intentional, but the last "instead" here falls flat for me.
A small change for this line:
"Like a death at a parade, my steps on grief intrude;" >> You could omit the "a" before "death," so that it reads a little smoother as "Like death at a parade, my steps on grief intrude."
Thanks for sharing!