The speaker of
this poem remembers his grandmother in this poem. His grandmother is already
dead, so only her reminiscence is with him. He remembers his grandmother’s
shape well. So, he could easily recognize her even from afar. He also remembers
‘the purple scarf’ that his grandmother used to wear and ‘the plastic shopping
bag’ that she used to carry. She was a simple village woman. She was not rich
and fashionable. His grandmother used to love him very much. He would know his
grandmother’s hands just by feeling them on his head. His grandmother’s hands
used to be ‘warm and damp’ whenever she put them on his head. The phrase 'warm
and damp' refers to love and compassion his grandmother had for him. His
grandmother’s hands would smell roots because she used to work in the farm. She
was a farmer. He says he can recognize his grandmother’s voice even if it comes
from the tombstone. His grandmother’s voice used to be very much inspiring for
him. So, he still imagines his grandmother inspiring him with her words. He
feels like ‘a sleeping fire at night’ from which someone is stirring ashes
whenever he remembers his grandmother’s inspiring voice.
The poet has
used some special words in the poem to create the images of his grandmother.
‘Her shape’, ‘the purple scarf’, ‘the plastic shopping bag’, ‘a rock’ and
‘sleeping fire’ appeal to our sense of sight. ‘smell of roots’ appeals to our
sense of smell. ‘warm and damp’ appeals to our sense of touch. ‘a voice’ and
‘her words’ appeal to our sense of hearing.
‘Grandmother’
is an attempt by Ray Young Bear, an American Indian poet, to search for his identity.
He is a member of the Sauk and Fox (Mesquaki) Indian tribe of North
America . So, he wants to set his own identity in the contemporary American
society. ‘Grandmother’ in the poem represents his people’s history and culture.
Most of the people of this tribe were farmers, so their hands smelled roots.
They would wash their hands after the farm work and would have wet hands. The
glorious history of his tribe often inspires him and he feels love for his
people and identity. Because of the inspiration he gets from the history, he
feels like a sleeping fire at night from which someone is stirring ashes. It
means, he is slowly growing conscious of his identity.
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