The poem revolves around the anxiety a mother feels towards her child. The poem discusses a mother’s fear of the society’s influence on her daughter. She does not want the child to become too ambitious as she believes that too much ambition can ruin the child’s development. The mother fears for the upbringing of her child. The main theme of the poem is how ambitions of wanting to live a luxurious lifestyle can ruin the morals a simple upbringing teaches the children. The theme of the poem centers around the intimate relationship between a mother and a daughter and how the influence from society can easily influence a young child. The mother, open the other hand, wants to shield her daughter from the pressure of having unrealistic expectations from her life.

Fear Summary

1. Refrain- refrain is used when a line is repeated in a stanza or a poem. In the poem, the first line of every stanza is repeated at the end of the stanza. For example the first stanza begins and ends by the lines “I don’t want them to turn/ my little girl into a swallow.”
2. Metaphor- metaphor is used when the poet makes an indirect comparison between two things without using the words “like” and “as”. In the poem, the poet makes a comparison between “sky” and “straw bed”. Here the “sky” means ambitious lifestyle and the “straw bed” means simple living.
3. Symbolism- symbolism is when the poet uses words to symbolize a concept, person or idea in a poem. In this poem, the words “Princess”, “Golden slippers”, “Queen” and “Throne” symbolize a life of luxury whereas the words “straw bed” and “meadow” symbolize a simple living.
4. Enjambment – enjambment is when the line is continued onto the next line without any pause. In the poem, the poet uses enjambment to create an internal connection within and between the stanzas.
5. Anaphora- anaphora is when a phrase is repeated in a stanza. In the poem, the phrases “I don’t want them to turn” and “I don’t want them to make” are repeated in the first and the last two stanzas respectively.
6. Repetition- Repetition is a literary device in which a word, phrase, or line is repeated for emphasis or effect. The phrase “my little girl” is repeated multiple times throughout the poem.

Fear Summary