The Heritage of Words - Grandmother - Summary - Grade XII

Nostalgia is the main theme of the poem Grandmother. In this poem the poet remembers his dead grandmother and writes about her. He draws a picture of his grandmother- all loving and inspiring. This poem presents the poets deep sense of intimacy and closeness to his grandmother even after her death. He can not forget her. He could recognize her by all senses except taste. The poet uses different images to draw the picture of his grandmother. 'Purple scarf ' and 'plastic shopping bag' is related to eyes, while the touch of ‘warm and damp’ hands appeals to skin or touch. A 'voice coming from a rock' is related to the sense of hearing; and her hands like that of 'roots' appeal to the sense of smell. The poet says that he could recognize his grandmother If he could see her face from a distance, from a mile away. He would quickly know that it was his grandmother with the purple scarf and plastic shopping bag. If he could feel hands on his head, he would know her warm and damp hands. They were warm with love. He says he feels the smell of roots from her hands. If he could hear a voice coming from the rock he would know that it was my grandmother’s voice. He would feel her words flowing inside him. The flow of her words would be like the light coming out of the sleeping fire at night. The poet says that her voice would be the source of inspiration for him. The memory of his grandmother takes the poet back to his childhood when she used to love him very much. Though the poet’s grandmother left him many years before, her images, voice, love, inspiration and memory are still animating in the mind and heart of the poet. Likewise the activities, behaviours, shape and so many other memory of his grandmother are the source of living which encourages him at all the moment. He has used four types of images out of five in this poem “Grandmother” to draw the picture of his dead grandmother. At first he talks about purple scarf and plastic shopping bag as visual image. Then, he talks about warm and damp hands to appeal our sense of touch. He says about the smell of roots from her hands as the image of smell. He talks abut her voice or words to appeal our sense of hearing. He is successful to create a word picture of his grandmother by using four types of images. He doesn’t talk about the taste. In conclusion, the poet draws the picture of his grandmother in this poem by using four types of images out of five.