Mother and Child

By Louise Glück (1943—2023)

We’re all dreamers; we don’t know who we are.

Some machine made us; machine of the world, the constricting family.

Then back to the world, polished by soft whips.

We dream; we don’t remember.

Machine of the family: dark fur, forests of the mother’s body.

Machine of the mother: white city inside her.

And before that: earth and water.

Moss between rocks, pieces of leaves and grass.

And before, cells in a great darkness.

And before that, the veiled world.

This is why you were born: to silence me.

Cells of my mother and father, it is your turn

to be pivotal, to be the masterpiece.

I improvised; I never remembered.

Now it’s your turn to be driven;

you’re the one who demands to know:

Cells in a great darkness. Some machine made us;

it is your turn to address it, to go back asking

what am I for? What am I for?

Copyright Credit: "Mother and Child" from The Seven Ages by Louise Glück. Copyright ©
2001 by Louise Glück. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source: The Seven Ages (The Ecco Press, 2001)

Biographical Information from Poetryfoundation.org

Louise Glück was born in New York City in 1943 and grew up on Long Island. She attended
Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Considered by many to be one of
America’s most talented contemporary poets, Glück was known for her poetry’s technical
precision, sensitivity, and insight into loneliness, family relationships, divorce, and death.
In 2020, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice
that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

Glück authored 13 books of poetry. Glück’s early books feature personae grappling with the
aftermaths of failed love affairs, disastrous family encounters, and existential despair. In
her later work, she continued to explore the agony of the self.

Glück’s poems invite readers to explore their deepest, most intimate feelings. Her ability to
write poetry many people can understand, relate to, and experience intensely and
completely stems from her deceptively straightforward language and poetic voice.

In a Washington Post Book World review of Glück’s The Triumph of Achilles, Wendy
Lesser noted that “‘direct’ is the operative word here: Glück’s language is staunchly
straightforward, remarkably close to the diction of ordinary speech. Yet her careful
selection for rhythm and repetition, and the specificity of even her idiomatically vague
phrases, give her poems a weight that was far from colloquial.”

Glück’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, The Wild Iris, clearly demonstrates her visionary
poetics. Written in three segments, the book is set in a garden and imagines three voices:
the gardener-poet, flowers speaking to the gardener-poet, and an omniscient god-like
figure. In 2003, Glück was named the 12th US Poet Laureate. She died in 2023.
Answer these questions.

1. What do you notice about this poem, its form, language or details? What stands out
to you?

I think that the imagery of the machines and their control over who people are now stood
out to me the most in this poem. It can be used as a warning for the future of all machines.

2. What do you like about this poem? What is your favorite line(s) from this poem?
Copy and paste it here. Why do you like it or what do you like about it?

My favorite line in the poem was “I improvised; I never remembered.” because it shows a lot
about the natural world and how it is supposed to work and how the world tends to forget
the problems that it needs to learn from.

3. What does Gluck do with personal pronouns in this poem and why do you think she
does this? (We, you, I)

It shows how similar we are in the beginning, and then how different we are from each other
and our impacts on each other by using you and I later on.

4. How does the poet utilize punctuation effectively? Address the change in the last
stanza and why she might end it that way.

In the last stanza she goes to using a lot of rhetorical questions from using declarative
statements which shows a shift in the poem where she addresses a need for more activism
to create change. The questions also just go to show a sense of uncertainty whereas the
periods showed more of a finite answer.

5. What is the poem saying about the relationship between parent (in this case,
mother) and child? Explain. Use text evidence to justify your response.
This poem shows that children should not become clones of their parents and should try
and become their own unique people. “Cells of my mother and father, it is your turn / to be
pivotal, to be the masterpiece.”

Poem Writing Assignment 1:

Write a poem that begins with a question. We have read several poems (Mary Oliver, Gluck)
that have raised provocative questions. Write a poem of no more than 20 lines. Begin with
a question. Use any form you want. It need not rhyme. Use some poetic devices that we
have studied to enhance your poem. Create a title. Consider line breaks, rhythm and line
length. Infuse your writing with imagery or figurative language.

Question Starters to Consider:

Who … What if… When will … Where does …Why …How can …Will …What can …Does …

When will it be over?

This year has felt like three

And now I wonder if I will have anything left.

Applications have been done for months

Decisions coming to a close

Yet the weight of the waiting haunts my thoughts.

Dreams woven in every line,

But will they see the heart I laid bare?

Hope and doubt dance in my mind,

As deadlines fade into the past,

I yearn for a sign, a path that’s aligned,

To embrace the future, at last.