In Gwendolyn Brooks'
poem, "The Mother", the
narrator expresses a reluctant
regret and a desire for the children to which she did not give birth as a result of
abortion. The paper analyzes the poem and its use of
tone,
diction, and
imagery. It finds that the speaker is alternately regretful, self-recriminating, and motherly in her reactions to her unborn children. Taken together, Brooks' powerful shifts in tone, diction, and imagery all serve to highlight the narrator's longing, and tentative regrets over children that were never born.