To A Daughter Leaving Home

Pastan jumps immediately to the past, the mother, telling the story of her daughter leaving home for the first time. The poem, in its entirety, is in past tense, “When I taught you / at eight to ride / a bicycle…” (1-3). Taught, being the past tense of teach in this portion of the poem, tells the reader that the mother is reflecting on the time she taught her daughter to ride her bicycle. The gap in time is ultimately created by the title, “To a Daughter Leaving Home.” The present time is the daughter leaving home again. The gap in time creates a reflection from when the daughter was eight-years-old to the present time. This flashback, created by Pastan, is guiding the reader to think that as the daughter is preparing to leave, the mother is having similar feelings as the first time her daughter

begins to grow up a little and realizes she is now seeing her parents otherwise, almost with a new

Linda Pastan’s poem, “For a Daughter Leaving Home,” displays how a parent views the life of his or her daughter by relating it to their daughter’s first bicycle ride. Her bicycle ride represents the difficult and stressful journey that the girl has embarked on throughout her life. Although the girl is now grown up and ready to start a life of her own, her parent is recalling everything about the girl’s life up to this point.

The children are unnoticed by others and the mother is the only one that is protecting them. This poem shows the hard times that the mother must face because her children have died. However the mother is coping with them while still protecting her children after they have died, This is the mother's way of coping because she is not yet ready to let go of her children and still wants to care for them. This poem shows this through nature by portraying the mother as a bird who is protecting her nest. Also the poem uses nature by describing the harsh times as a winter wind that has caused harm to the mother and her children.

This marks a new stage in the narrator's emotions, as she is glum upon his exit. It is clearly evident that the speaker is worried about her husband's journey because of line sixteen, which states, "Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water." This line shows that the husband is travelling through dangerous terrain. Throughout the third stanza, the narrator is said to slowly transition into a depression phase, as she dearly misses her husband. In lines twenty-three to twenty-five, the narrator sees butterflies flying "two by two" in the garden, and she feels very depressed upon seeing this because the butterflies are all together with their spouses, while she isn't. In line twenty-six, the speaker uses imagery to describe her emotion. She fears that she might start to look pale because of her

She is realizing that she will have freedom through her husband death and whispers over and over, “free, free, free!” Her unhappiness is not with her husband, it is her rankings in society and becoming a widow is her only chance she has to gain the power, money, respect, and most of all freedom.

The ending of the poem is most tragic. In the safety of her home, the mother hears

In the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan is filed with metaphors and symbols that represent the feeling of a child growing up and moving out onto their own. There comes a time when every parent must send off their child into the world, and these parents feel a multitude of things when sending them off. It paints a picture of a father teaching his young daughter to ride a bike, but uses this image to represent a child growing up. The mixed feeling of pride and fear as the child grows up and moves out of the nest. The use of first person past tense shows us that the narrator is recalling the time they taught their child to ride a bike and are reliving that experience with the child moving out again. The fright of watching your child speed down the road towards life is portrayed from the start and continues throughout the poem. A good parent is always worried about their child’s wellbeing; they will always worry as they watch their children head straight to the destruction that comes with living life. Though the good parent will try their best to teach their child how to ride their bike into adulthood. This poem uses imagery, word choice, and metaphor to express the fears a parent has when sending their child out on their own into the world.

The jealous tone disappears at the end, however, and the poem ends wistfully and resigned stating that, “It’s an old/story—the oldest we have on our planet--/the story of replacement” (16-18). The speaker realizes that aging is part of the continuous life process, which starts at birth and ends at death. She understands that each phase of life has a specific purpose for maintaining the species. Her daughter must mature so she can create new life, just as the speaker did ten years ago. She knows that eventually her daughter will replace her and that the life process will continue to repeat itself for generations to come.

The author Linda Pastan, imagines a parent running breathlessly to regain her strength from the ending connection she once shared with her daughter in her poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home.” It’s a mother’s biggest fear when it comes to their child or children leaving home while going their own ways when the time is right. This poem is based on childhood, fatherhood, and even motherhood.

To me, this poem is an extended metaphor for life journeys.  Wilbur’s daughter is undergoing not only the experience of writing– along with its frustrations and “heavy cargo” – but is experiencing life with some difficulties along the way.

In the poem the blaring music helps the daughter stay happy: “But at four what she wants is self-location

Throughout the poem "To a Daughter Leaving Home", the mother speaks deeply about facing the reality of her daughter growing up and leaving home. Showing the mother raising her daughter into a beautiful young lady, to her reminiscing about the sweet moments

Thus, introducing our second poem, which touches on a very different stage of motherhood; letting go. The story of To a Daughter Leaving Home is about a mother teaching her daughter to ride a bicycle, which is a monumental stage of development for most children. However, I think the poem is a metaphor for something even bigger. as the title suggests I believe the true meaning is about having your children physically leave home. For a mother this is probably the most simultaneously rewarding and frightening moment to endure. The poem talks about how the mother watches the child speed away from her, growing smaller and more breakable, this to me symbolizes the devastating transition between a child’s complete dependence on their mother, to the genuine need for independence they require to become an

"A Prayer for My Daughter" is a poem written by William Butler Yeats in 1919. This poem is a prayer-like poem. And it generally tells about the poet's ideas about his daughter who is sleeping at the same time while the poem is being told. Throughout the poem Yeats reflects how he wants his daughter's future to be. This essay will analyze the poem in three sections: 1- What does this poem mean?, 2- The poetic devices, imagery, rhyming, figures of speech, used in the poem and mood, diction, language, and the structure of the poem, 3- An essay in a feminist point of view titled "What does the poet want his daughter to become?" .