Mother to Son

I feel like this poem is the most straight forward of the 3 we read. It tells of a mother's message to her son. That message being, "Don't give up. Life is going to be hard but keep striving". The author repeats the line "life for me ain't been no crystal stair". The use of this metaphor, in my interpretation, means that life is not glamourous, nor easy. The crystal being symbolic of something pretty, and the stairs representing ascension, as in to "move up" or to a better place. The mother is not denying the possibility of ascending one's self to a better place, rather she is stating that it is possible, but with continuous, hard work. In comparing these 3 poems I noticed a couple of similarities. The first being that all of the stories tell of a relationship between a parent and a child. The second being that they all seem to contain a message of hopefulness. However, along with that hopefulness, there is a darkness that comes with it. For instance, in "Mother to Son", the mother is conveying a message of determination. And along with that she, in detail, describes how hard and ugly life can be. Same is the case with "The Chimney Sweeper": sure, Tom will rest peacefully, but it will require him to come to terms with his unfair job, and then it is once he dies that he will be at peace. And lastly, the hope of the parent in "For My Daughter" is to not be a parent. Or maybe the hope is for his or her sick child to die so that she can be put out of her misery, depending on how you interpret the poem. Either way, there is a goal that can only be accomplished with the accompaniment of something dark or grim occurring.