Compare/contrast "The Victory" & "The Mother"
...escribes the son in “The Victory” as a “blind thing” (9) with “blank insect eyes” (10). The mother doesn’t even see her child as a human, but as a bug. Brooks describes the mother’s unborn children as “damp small pulps with a little or with no hair” (3). The mother in the poem reflects on memories she could have had with her children and apologizes that she never got the chance to let them live. Although these poems are similar there are also aspects of each poem that are different. The mother in “The Victory” anticipates a child where as in “The Mother” the mother without a child chooses not to partake in parenthood. Stevenson writes, “I thought you were my victory” (1), as though the mother expected more with childbirth than what she received. She thought her child was going to bring her great joy to her life but all she got was “bladed cries” (12). It sounds like the mother doesn’t want to take on the responsibilities as a mother when she says, “Snail! Scary knot of desires!/ Hungry snarl!” (13-14). Again the title is incorporated in the last lines when Stevenson writes, “Why do I have to love you?/ How have you won?” (15-16). The child isn’t a victory in the mother’s eyes if she speaks of her son as a “tiny antagonist” (5). “The Mother” has an abortion, for whatever reason, and feels guilty and sorry in the end. The mother in “The Victory” wanted a child at first and in the end had second thoughts on whether the child was really a victory. Whereas in “The Mother,” the mother didn’t want a child at first and in the end thought that maybe having an abortion wasn’t such a good idea. She reflects on the games she could have played with them, and the snacks she could have made them. “Abortions will nev...