Analysis poem WIFE by A. Halim Ali She was the mirror on the wall.

The word she in the poem is referring to the wife. The author symbolizes the wife with a mirror. As we all know, a mirror is a piece of special glass that you can look at and see yourself in. Besides to see image of ourselves, we often use mirror to see what is behind us, in other word, mirror enable us to see things at the blind spot. Mirror gives a clear idea of what something else is like. In this poem, the wifes personality reflects what the husband is. For example, if the husband is rich, the wife would wear something expensive and elegant to portray their status. The wife may act as an informant to her husband. The wife would tell everything to the husband about the household and their children. The husband will never know in details about what happen at home when he is out for work. So, he needs the wife to tell him about it in order to get a clear view regarding his family. The mirror was highly placed for the husband to see himself. Its means that, his wife is someone to be proud of and inspirational to him as the author mentioned that the mirror was placed high on the wall. We place something that is significant to us like our certificate high on the wall to make ourselves proud and we can always see it. Or, maybe the author wants to tell the readers that the wife is someone who is very important and precious to the husband and thats why the mirror is placed high on the wall so that it will not easily damage and placing it high will give the husband some sort of secure feeling as anyone who see it will not be getting it easily; meaning to say that, the wife will not easily get to be touched by anyone else. In other words, the husband wants his wife to be loyal to him. Besides that, the husband uses the mirror to know his soul within the mirror. The mirror reflects everything in front of it; the wife can convinced the husband that all the loves and protections she receives from him make her loves him and her husbands soul do exist within her. The mirror is also used for the husband to utter words of praise with enchantments that cool the heart. The wife is also a place for the husband to talk sweetly to please his wife and sooth her heart. Each and every day, the wife watched her children climb the height of maturity until one day they flew away. Meaning to say that, the wife always look after her children and gradually she sees them growing and as time passes, her children are already matured and need to separate with her in order to live their own lives. Height of maturity in this poem doesnt simply means that it is about the children are getting taller. Instead, it means that the children are growing from

their childhood towards their adolescents. The height or level of their thinking is getting higher. Now, they are able to think critically and out of the box. They no longer take things literally. They have grown up now and are leaving the wife. There are many reasons for the children to separate from the wife and move out from the house. The children are separated with her maybe because of their marriages, occupations demand or to further their studies. The children sometimes returned with fractured personality. The fractured personality here means that the childrens conditions are not as good as before - when they leave her. Maybe her children are having problems or some difficulties in their lives such as financial problem, marriage issues or failure in studies that made them lose up hope to move on. So, once in a while, her children came back with fractured personality. The children only come back to normality when each morning they looked into the mirror. The children will only regain their confidence as well as feel motivated and can get back to their usual selves when each morning they saw their mother, the wife - they saw how strong and patient she is, how loving and caring she could be, the tender side of the wife. Here, the wife acts as the cure and source of the childrens inspirations. Here, the symbol of mirror means that whoever looks into the mirror will turn out to be just what that person look like. The children look into her and her characters reflect back upon them. With that, the children could get back to their normal selves and will be able to move on their lives as the wife has motivated them. Whilst there she seldom knew herself. While her entire life, she spends most of her time at home with her husband and her children, she doesnt notice that she is aging and getting weaker. She seldom takes care of herself and doesnt pay any attention to herself. Except for the day when she fell on the floor, crushed underneath her husbands feet. At that time, she may realize that something is wrong with her. She observe herself and notice as time passes, her time also passed. She is aging now, and, she faces that fact when one day as she fell on the floor while doing house chores, she realized that she didnt have the same energy as she used to have. Maybe, before this she had never fell on the floor because she had stamina to get hold of herself but now, her vision might not be as good as it used to be and keep on bumping into things and her body was not as fit as when she was young that may lead her to the incident when she fell on the floor. Her husband wished to replace her with another mirror newly bought. The mirror newly bought here means that another women will act as the wife to her husband the new wife. The women maybe is a very young person and is still virgin as the author said that the

mirror is newly bought which means that no one had ever used the mirror before. When the husband saw the wife crushed underneath his feet, the husband knew that the wife was not as good as before who used to be able to fulfill his needs excellently. The husband had the intention to replace the wife with another young woman. The husband felt that the wife can no longer properly did the duty as his wife anymore.

This analysis of poem is collaboration of : 1) Nurulakyun binti Yusoff 2) Nur Farahanim binti Mohd Khalil (D20111047737) (D20111047735)

Introduction to Literature (BIS3013), Group B