The poem “The Lost Woman…” by Patricia Beer projects the nature of the posthumous relationship

that exists between a dead mother and a surviving child. This unusual narrative, from the first-person
point of view, reveals the disparity in the perception of the child, which can largely be attributed to time
and growth. Beer explores this theme with the use of diction, imagery, structure, and tone.
Firstly, the poet portrays the early impact of parental pressure on parent-child relationships with the
use of diction and tone, and through the speaker's use of emotive language, evocative diction, and
shifting tones manages to depict the complex nature of grief and its ability to warp lives and memory. In
the opening line of the poem, “My mother went with no more warning” the use of the word “went”
serves as a euphemism which reveals the speaker's perspective of death to the reader. While went
appears to be a cold or dismissive word to describe her death it is equally as likely to be an attempt by the
speaker to convey the suddenness of her mother's death. Went is a word that carries a sense of
impermanence, one which illustrates an image of a short trip away such as a visit to the shopping mall
rather than the death of one’s mother. Moreover, the speaker's use of the phrase “no more warning” and
the adjective “shocking white” to describe the ambulance in addition to the fact that her mother never
returned and she never got to attend her mother's burial emphasizes to the reader the speaker's lack of
closure due to the unforeseen nature of her mother's death and the profound emotional experience
associated with loss.
In addition, in examining the tone surrounding grief in the text, it becomes evident that the author
employs a blend of somberness and respect mixed with guilt making it strangely reminiscent of poems
like “Father Returning Home” by Dilip Chitre. While the first two stanzas use words and phrases such as
“shocking” and “my tendrils are the ones that clutch” to create a tone of somberness and sorrow while in
the last four stanzas the speaker employs words and phrases such as “I made a life for her over the years”,
“a corpse the need not get to know” and “I am not lost” to portray the theme of the passage of time and
its role in the grieving process as well as the complex nature of parent-child relationships.
Furthermore, the author's use of vivid and poignant imagery conveys the deep pain and anguish
experienced by the grieving character. The use of vivid, sensory language such as “shocking white
ambulance”, “bright voice and bad pain” and “but my lost woman evermore snaps” creates a powerful
and evocative depiction of grief, allowing readers to truly empathize with the sorrow and pain being
expressed. Additionally, the author's careful choice of words and phrases helps to establish a somber and
melancholic tone throughout the text, reinforcing the overwhelming nature of grief. Moreover, the text's
structure adeptly captures the journey of grief, as it moves through different stages and explores the
transformative power of time and personal growth. The poem contains 6 stanzas with 6 lines of similar
lengths the whole way through and an ABABCC rhyme scheme that suggests order and direction in Beer’s
writing. However, this is undermined by her choice of rhymes since most of the rhymes are half-rhymes
which make the poem read in a slightly odd way. This is aided by the use of caesuras in the first, fourth,
and sixth stanzas that really disrupt the flow and rhythm of the poem.
This disrupts the peace expected from a poem celebrating the loss of a loved one and replaces it
with a sense of disconnection and awkwardness likely reflecting the nature of the speaker’s relationship
with her mother. While in life they had a strained relationship she felt she needed to escape, in death this
is tempered by respect for the sacrifices she has made and her intentions of giving the speaker a good life.
Overall, through Beer’s skillful use of diction, tone, and structure to convey her ideas she successfully
conveys the role of time in healing from grief and the growth that occurs with it and makes readers
question their own ideas of grief as well as the way they choose to cope with it