American Literature / Unit 13 AML 1210 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Mother to Son"
Captions available
The idea
A mother tells her son that life for her has been no crystal stair but a staircase with tacks, splinters and torn boards, and that she has kept climbing. One extended metaphor carries it, and it ends by telling him not to turn back.
In practice
A staircase, with the boards torn up.
Where people slip
One metaphor carries the whole poem.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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