Read each stanza slowly. Notice the repeated opening line — it is called a refrain.
Key facts to know for your exam.
Tools the poet uses to make the poem deeply moving.
| Device | What It Means | Example from the Poem |
|---|---|---|
| Refrain | A line repeated in each stanza of a poem. | “I cannot remember my mother” — appears at the start of all 3 stanzas. |
| Imagery — Auditory | Words that make you hear something in your mind. | “A tune seems to hover over my playthings” — we can almost hear the gentle humming. |
| Imagery — Olfactory | Words that make you smell something in your mind. | “The smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air” — we can almost smell the flowers. |
| Imagery — Visual | Words that create a picture in the reader’s mind. | “My eyes into the blue of the distant sky” — we see the vast, calm sky clearly. |
| Symbolism | An object or image that stands for a deeper idea. | The sky symbolises the mother’s eternal and ever-present love — vast, still, all-covering. |
| Simile | A comparison using the word “as” or “like”. | “Comes to me as the scent of my mother” — the temple scent is compared to the mother’s scent. |
| Personification | Giving a human quality to something non-human. | “A tune seems to hover” — the tune moves and floats like a living creature. |
Important words from the poem — know them by heart!
Try these on your own first, then check the answer key.
(Choose from: refrain, gaze, cradle, shiuli, sky, tune, Nobel Prize, stillness)
(Write T for True and F for False in the brackets.)
Fill in the Blanks: 1. refrain 2. tune 3. cradle 4. shiuli 5. stillness
True or False: 1. T 2. F (it is free verse — no strict rhyme) 3. T
Part A — Fill in the Blanks: 1. refrain 2. tune 3. cradle 4. shiuli 5. stillness
Part B — True or False: 1. T 2. F (it is free verse — no strict rhyme) 3. T
1. What three senses does the poet use to remember his mother? Give one example for each.
(a) Hearing (Auditory): In Stanza 1, the poet remembers a tune his mother used to hum while rocking his cradle: “Only sometimes in the midst of my play a tune seems to hover over my head.” He cannot see his mother, but the sound of her melody still reaches him across time.
(b) Smell (Olfactory): In Stanza 2, the fragrance of shiuli flowers in autumn brings back the memory of his mother’s presence: “when the smell of shiuli flowers comes to me in the autumn.” Scent is the most powerful trigger for memory — and for the poet, one smell unlocks a lifetime of longing.
(c) Sight (Visual): In Stanza 3, the vast open sky carries the feeling of his mother’s gaze: “when my eyes are fixed on the far blue sky.” Looking at the endless sky, he feels his mother’s eyes watching over him still.
The vast blue sky represents the poet’s mother because it is eternal, limitless, and always present — just like a mother’s love. The poet says, “I feel that my mother’s gaze is fixed on my face” when he looks at the sky. This shows that even though his mother is no longer alive, he still feels her love watching over him from above. The sky becomes a symbol of the mother’s soul — always near, always watching, stretching without limit. The image is comforting and deeply moving: love does not end with death; it spreads wide as the sky.
The repeated refrain “I cannot remember my mother” tells us that loss and longing are the heart of this poem. The poet lost his mother when he was very young, so he has no clear memories of her face or voice — yet he feels her presence every day through sound, smell, and sight. The refrain shows us something profound: even when direct memory is gone, love remains. The theme is that a mother’s love leaves an invisible mark on a child’s heart forever — it lives in music, in flowers, and in the open sky, long after she is gone.
The whole poem at one glance.
Mind Map — The complete poem in one picture.