Tone

"Mother of the Groom" by Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, born in Ireland, published his first poetry book in 1966. Heaney won the 1995 Nobel Prize in literature. He became a professor and speaker and eventually passed away in August of 2013.

Mother of the Groom

What she remembersIs his glistening backIn the bath, his small bootsin the ring of boots at her feet.

Hands in her voided lap,she hears a daughter welcomed.It’s as if he kicked when liftedand slipped her soapy hold.

Once soap would ease offthe wedding ringthat’s bedded forever nowin her clapping hand.

"Mother of the Groom" by Seamus Heaney is about a mother who experiences both sadness and shock through the marriage of her son. In the first stanza the mother is remembering bathing her son when he was a small child. In this stanza Heaney uses a nostalgic tone to remember this event. The mother remembers washing her son's "glistening" back symbolizing the beauty she saw in her son. By the author choosing the mother to remember the child's back shows how he is leaving his mother. In the second stanza Heaney uses "voided" to describe the mother's hands. This is used to show the mother's emptiness she feels as a result of the marriage. The second line of this stanza is the first time a daughter-in-law is present. The final two lines of the second stanza are a description of how the mother feels. Heaney describes the sound of hearing her daughter-in-law as her baby son kicking and being dropped in the bath. This word choice leads us to believe that the mother was not approving of the marriage, yet the son still got away and has caused the mother as much pain as she would feel as if she dropped her son. The final stanza is how the mother views the marriage ending up: in divorce. The soap will "ease off" allowing the wedding ring "bedded forever now" to be removed.
Throughout the entire poem the author continues to go back to the picture of the baby being bathed. "… she remembers… /his glistening back/in the bath," "It's as if he kicked when lifted/And slipped her soapy hold/ Once soap would ease off." This is all to show how a mother has a certain connection with her son from the time of infancy through marriage where she will always view him as "her little boy."