Murder, She Wrote

I admit, I rather enjoyed "Edward." The two speakers--Edward and his mother--use repetition of each other's names and of their initial comments. This repetition serves two purposes. Superficially, the repetition emphasizes each individual question or responses, forcing the reader to read each comment twice in order to feel its power more strongly. On a deeper level, though, this repetition increases suspense as Edward's mother constantly pressures Edward to reveal his troubles. This buildup of pressure and suspense occurs twice within the poem. Each time, Edward finally reveals what is troubling him, and each time, the answer is slightly shocking. In the first climactic moment, the reader learns that Edward has killed his father. This murder is revealed as the reason for his guilt and for his decision to leave the land he knows.

Yet the second climax is even more surprising. After building up the emotion of the poem by asking her son what will happen to those he will leave behind, Edward's mother finally asks him what he will leave for her. Yet instead of a heartfelt token of his lover for her, Edward replies with a rather unexpectedly bitter "curse of hell" for her. At first, the reader is shocked at Edward's reply, yet in the very last line of the poem, Edward finally reveals the reason for his loathing: his mother gave him "such counsels" to kill his father. Despite his guilt, Edward's hatred for his mother is stronger, for though he committed the crime, she devised it in the first place. A rather interesting--and by interesting, I of course mean grossly dysfunctional--mother-and-son relationship, don't you think?