My grandmother by Elizabeth Jennings

My grandmother by Elizabeth Jennings

 She kept an antique shop-or it kept her.

Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glasses,

The faded silks, the heavy furniture,

She watched her own reflection in the brass

Salvers and silver bowls, as if to prove

Polish was all, there was no need for love.

And I remember how I once refused

To go out with her, since I was afraid.

It was perhaps a wish not to be used

Like antique objects .Though she never said

That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt

Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.

Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put

All her best things in one long, narrow room.

The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut,

The smell of absences where shadows come

That can’t be polished. There was nothing then

To give her own reflection back again.

And when she died I felt no grief at all,

Only the guilt of what I once refused.

I walked into her room among the tall

Sideboards and cupboards-things she never used

But needed: and no finger-marks were there,

Only the new dust falling through the air.

Poem Analysis

The persona of this poem is a grandchild – “My grandmother “

 Stanza 1 describers the persona grandmother and a historic shop she had which he loved “She kept an antique shop- or it kept her”

Stanza 2 describes the incidence which course guilt to the grandmother yet she dint want to show.  The  persona uses a regretful tone in this stanza.  He said “I still could feel the guilt of that refusal, guessing how she  felt’’

 Stanza 3: shows her grandmother in retirement because he couldn’t continue keeping the shop. She was weak  “Later, too frail to keep a shop”

Stanza 3: after her grandmother has died, the persona reflects on her grandmother’s life and her own memories but the persona feels indifferent towards his grandmother. “And when she died I felt no grief at all”  

Images in the poem include:     

Vivid description- The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut. It shows how old that place was creating a mental picture on the readers mind 

 Simile- like antique objects, to show persona’s objection to the way he was treated by the grandmother

Metaphor-The smells of absences; the place smelt old

Paradox- - things she never used, but needed: / it shows that the grandmother was attached to the things she had  but   she didn’t really use them.  They did not have any value to her apart from being attached to them.