"And what will ye leave to your own mother dear, Edward, Edward, And what will ye leave to your own mother dear? My dear son, now tell me, O. The curse of hell from me shall ye bear, Such counsels you gave to me, O."
My understanding of this poem moved from confused, to curious, to suspicious, to seriously disturbed. At first, I thought this kid just kept having a lot of accidents with his sword. However, by the time he had killed his father, I realized something else was going on. Usually when children have accidents as severe as killing hawks or horses, they don't go straight to their mothers. Kids usually hide these types of incidents from their parents until they absolutely have to tell the truth. The fact that the son kept running to his mother with regrets about what he had done proved that not only was the killings of his own will, but had nothing to hide from his mother.
The key to discerning the meaning of this poem was in the the structure which mainly consisted of repetition. Not only did the repetition of the names of the person being addressed help me understand which person was talking, and to him, but it added distress to the voice of the characters. Also, the repetition of the "O" added even more distress to the words of the son and mother. Not only were phrases repeated, but the events in the poem were repeated with increasing severity. If the poem consisted only of the first and the last stanza, we would probably not be able to realize that the mother was behind the son's actions even though the son alludes to it. The fact that the incidents are repeated, and the son even considers leaving, because of the repeats, increase the probability that the reader will be able to grasp the insidious truth behind the blood on the sword of the son.
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