The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver

Motherhood is a central theme in “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver.” The poem is a son’s recollection of his mother, enshrining her memory and the effort she put forth to do what she could for her son. The boy's father is no longer alive, therefore, the boy and the mother only have each other, and they are isolated from participating in society because of their poverty. Because the mother has no one else to talk to except her son, she works through her guilt and shame in her conversations with her son. She is the only one responsible for his well-being, yet she does not have the means to make him proper clothing or a meal. Therefore, this makes her feel desperate and helpless because she does not have the means to fulfill her role as a mother. She breaks down emotionally in front of her son due to the weight of the impossible responsibility to nurture and provide amidst poverty.

In the fourth stanza, the mother expresses that the "sight" (Line 16) of her son "[m]akes [her] blood crawl" (Line 17). They are both starving, and she cannot bear to see how thin her son is becoming from the lack of nourishment. He is a physical representation of her poverty, and it produces a visceral reaction within the mother, who once nourished her son when he was a baby growing within her womb. Because they were once one, she still feels his pain and suffering as if it were her own. As the poem progresses, the son reveals how his mother sang him "[t]o sleep all day" (Line 50), though it is implied that he is too old for this: "Me with my long legs / Dragging on the floor (Lines 41-42). This display of affection carries multiple meanings. On the surface, it shows that the mother and son love each other and can still experience a moment of happiness and silliness together amidst the worst of times. Looking deeper, the mother might wish for her son to sleep through these times of hunger and cold, as if he were hibernating. She wants to protect him from the harsh reality of their poverty. If the mother holds her son in her lap, this is also a way for her to use her own body heat to keep him warm. At this moment, she can provide love, moments of happiness, and warmth for her son.

The speaker recalls that he "cried [himself] to sleep" (Line 67) on Christmas Eve, and this is where the poem appears to take a magical turn. The son remembers his mother’s devotion as he "felt [his] mother rise, / And stare down upon me / With love in her eyes” (Lines 70-72). The timing of Christmas is meaningful, as this is a time when many children have trouble falling asleep, anticipating the gifts they will open on Christmas morning. The boy and his mother have trouble falling asleep because they are cold and hungry, and they do not anticipate any gifts the next morning. However, the mother begins to make something out of nothing that evening as she sings and plays the harp turned loom, magically weaving warm clothes for the boy that are worthy of "a king's son" (Line 99). The mother's unrelenting courage is captured in this moment, as "[h]er voice never faltered, / And the thread never broke" (Lines 112-113); this is her final act of selfless generosity before she passes away.