On Her Blindness and Night Drive
Both On Her Blindness and Night Drive create semantic fields of death, but also explore the
unpredictability of life and the impact of this on changing relationships within families.
The two poems present relationships between parents and their, now adult, children. For
example, in Night Drive, the persona remarks 'the closest, Mother, we have been in years',
suggesting that the pair had gradually grown apart since the persona's childhood. Also, the
term of address, 'Mother' reveals that the persona is talking directly to their mother, rather
than simply recalling memories involving her. Their relationship is described once again in
the final line, 'you would've led me to the next world, Mother, like a child', which connotes
dependence and hints at the persona's memories of childhood, which On Her Blindness does
not. By contrast, On Her Blindness presents the relationship between the mother and her
son as containing an element of misunderstanding. The persona appears to misinterpret his
mother's habitual 'visiting exhibition, admiring films' as he describes the way she would 'sink
into television / while looking the wrong way'. The verb 'sink' connotes being immersed in
the action habitually, which is juxtaposed by 'while looking the wrong way', highlighting the
futility of her hobbies. The persona believes his mother feels obliged to socialise by enjoying
the same activities as her family, regardless of her inability to participate, which further
deteriorates as she grows older. Also, the persona describes his mother's ability to disguise
her impairment by pretending she 'saw things she couldn't see...so we'd forget'. This creates
the impression that the persona believes his mother intended to deceive their family
regarding her blindness, when it would be more accurate to assume she was simply
attempting to regain a sense of normality. Therefore, each poem explores a different
relationship between two mothers and their respective children, demonstrating how time
and ageing can significantly affect the relationships that exist within families.
The poems are also similar due to their common exploration of the unpredictability of life
and death. In Night Drive, for example, the alterations in pace symbolise the unpredictable
nature of life. The enjambment in the second and third stanza creates a flowing pace,
emphasised by the long, descriptive sentences such as 'hearing you whisper 'Jesus' under
your breath, / preparing your soul for the moment of death'. However, this is altered
significantly by the pauses created by commas in 'then, just as suddenly, nothing happened',
symbolising the unpredictability of the situation described and metaphorically for life in its
entirety. Also, the persona's initial suggestion that the sheep moved away 'for no reason' is
immediately corrected by 'attracted by a clump of grass', which demonstrates both the
trivial and unexplainable actions of the animal, and the persona's acknowledgement of their
lack of understanding or compassion for the creature. Similarly, in On Her Blindness, the
persona's mother unfortunately experiences a form of deterioration on two occasions:
firstly, with her gradually failing eyesight, and secondly with her health. The poet uses
sentence lengths to reflect this, for example, 'the long, slow slide' is featured in a long
sentence and contains lengthened vowel sounds to reflect the gradual decline. Similarly, the
enjambment throughout the poem, such as 'from those who bear it / like a Roman, or
somehow find joy / in the fight' implies the poem is formed from the persona's train of
thought, by the regular couplet structure prevents it from being considered frantic. This
