Lyn Lifshin? Opinions welcome? I do not really understand this poem, anyone care to help?
PLEASE NOTE: there are no underscores in the poem, i put them there to hold the spaces. the underscores represent about four extra spaces in between those words.
"My Mother and the Bed" by Lyn Lifshin
"No, not that way she'd
say when I was 7, pulling
the bottom sheet smooth.
You've got to____saying
hospital corners
I wet the bed much later
than I should. Until
just writing this, I
hadn't thought of
the connection
My mother would never
sleep on sheets someone
else had____I never
saw any stains on hers
though her bedroom was
a maze of powder____hair
pins____black dresses
She used to bring her
own sheets to my house,
carried toilet seat covers.
Did anybody sleep
in my____she always asks
Her sheets____her hair
she says the rooms here
smell funny
We drove at 3 AM
slowly into Boston and
strip what looks like
two clean beds as the
sky gets light____I
smooth on the form
fitted flower bottom,
She redoes it
She thinks of my life
as a bed only she
can make right"
if anyone has read this or worked on it already and knows what its means please help me our here. otherwise i would also appriciate your personal opinion or interpretation of it if you are just reading it for the first time.
what do the extra spaces and how would you read them? for example the space after the "to" in line 4. this is how the poem is printed in my book and one of the critical thinking questions asks how you would interpret those spaces so i know its not just a spacing error.
I think the poem is generally just about the speakers mother who is so overly organized and picky about everything and thinks nothing is good enough unless she does it herself. the daughter feels like she can never be good enough for her mother. but i dont really get the spaces. also, could the poem be considered humorous?
please give me your opions or websites that talk about the poem, thank you to all who help!!
PLEASE NOTE: there are no underscores in the poem, i put them there to hold the spaces. the underscores represent about four extra spaces in between those words.
"My Mother and the Bed" by Lyn Lifshin
"No, not that way she'd
say when I was 7, pulling
the bottom sheet smooth.
You've got to____saying
hospital corners
I wet the bed much later
than I should. Until
just writing this, I
hadn't thought of
the connection
My mother would never
sleep on sheets someone
else had____I never
saw any stains on hers
though her bedroom was
a maze of powder____hair
pins____black dresses
She used to bring her
own sheets to my house,
carried toilet seat covers.
Did anybody sleep
in my____she always asks
Her sheets____her hair
she says the rooms here
smell funny
We drove at 3 AM
slowly into Boston and
strip what looks like
two clean beds as the
sky gets light____I
smooth on the form
fitted flower bottom,
She redoes it
She thinks of my life
as a bed only she
can make right"
if anyone has read this or worked on it already and knows what its means please help me our here. otherwise i would also appriciate your personal opinion or interpretation of it if you are just reading it for the first time.
what do the extra spaces and how would you read them? for example the space after the "to" in line 4. this is how the poem is printed in my book and one of the critical thinking questions asks how you would interpret those spaces so i know its not just a spacing error.
I think the poem is generally just about the speakers mother who is so overly organized and picky about everything and thinks nothing is good enough unless she does it herself. the daughter feels like she can never be good enough for her mother. but i dont really get the spaces. also, could the poem be considered humorous?
please give me your opions or websites that talk about the poem, thank you to all who help!!