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What Is The Mood Of The Poem Alzheimer's By Bob Hicok

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In the poem “Alzheimer’s,” by Bob Hicok is about the narrator’s mother as she goes through a terrible disease known as Alzheimer’s. The narrator discusses how the disease takes an individual’s loved one away from them, even though their body remains alive. He paints a picture of the first few things that happen to someone with Alzheimer’s. The narrator talks about how his mother starts to forget who her own grandchildren are. He has to take care of his mother during this stage of her life. He must protect her from all the dangers and harm she could inflict on herself unknowingly. He does all of this even though she has no recollection of who he is anymore. The narrator does this for his mother though because she gave him this life to live, and without that, he would have never been given this life to live to begin with. …show more content…

The poet creates these emotions for the reader when he talks about how the narrator’s mother cannot protect herself anymore. The narrator talks about how he has to protect her: “So I protect her from knives, / stairs, from the street that calls / as rivers do, a summons to walk away, to follow” (12-15). The tone for this poem is downhearted, gloomy, and distressed. The author displays his feelings toward the subject of the poem when he shows that the narrator knows she will never remember his name, even though he is helping her so much. The narrator shows these feelings after he helps his mother get dressed: “when she sometimes looks up / and says my name, the sound arriving / like the thrill of a bird so rare / it’s rumored no longer to exist”

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