“This Moment” by Eavan Boland

I found the poem “ This Moment” by Eavan Boland a complicated poem when I read it for the first time. I started to question myself once I finish reading it, what does this poem wants to tell us? The sentence was very short and each stanza doesn’t seem to be very related to each other. However, once I read it for the 2nd and 3rd time, I came to realize that the speaker wants to describe about a specific moment in her life. Starting from the daily life and activities she did to the love and warmth a mother gives to her child. The speaker talks about a specific moment in her life that takes place in “ A neighborhood”(1). The stanza, “At dusk”(2) tells us that the setting is at twilight; I assume that the place is surrounded with quietness. In the stanza “ Stars and moths”, (6) it tells us that stars are twinkling and the moths have come out.

“And rinds slanting around fruit” (7) tells us that the fruits are ripping. After that, the speaker describe, “ One tree is black / one window is yellow as butter” (8-9), which I think it is because of the light in the house that make the window yellow, the simile “yellow as butter” gives a comfortable feeling of being home. When looking out of the window, we can see the shadow of the tree in black colors like silhouette. In the most important part of the poem, the speaker describes “A woman leans down to catch a child/ who has run into her arms/ this moment” (11-13). I find this part of the poem very touching to me since the speaker is describing about the love and warmth of the mother towards her child.

The caring of the mother reminded me of the time when I was little and my mother was comforting me when I was crying. It also reminded me of the time when I had a cold and my mother was sitting next to my bed, taking care of me all day. “ This moment” is a free verse poem that is short but rather beautiful. The memorable image of the mother and the child that the speaker mention is one of the things that created the sweetness in the poem. The human nature shown in here also gives power and beauty to the poem. After all, I think this poem is a very beautiful, touching, and enjoyable poem.