The Mother's Identity Through Love and Service
Jenkins brilliantly uses physical imagery to show how this mother expressed love through everyday actions. Her hands tell the whole story - scarred from cooking, rough from washing up, always busy caring for her family.
The poet focuses on how she showed love "the only way she knew" - through simple, traditional cooking. Every cheap cut of meat and home-cooked stew represented her devotion to her family, even when they might have taken it for granted.
Her wedding rings and gold watch become powerful symbols of her identity as a wife. These weren't just accessories - they defined who she was. The fact that she "never been without" her watch shows how these objects anchored her sense of self in happier times.
Key insight: The mother's entire identity was built around serving and loving her family, making her husband's death even more devastating.
