The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me

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Commentary for “The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me” From the title the reader learns that this poem will convey a message about a black fan that a mother gave to her offspring. The speaker, a son/daughter of the mother (one would probably think a daughter) conveys her tale by filling in the gaps of the story that her mother sketchily told to her. The reader may infer this state of affairs by these lines: “And no way now to know what happened then/none at all—unless of course you improvise (lines 27 and 28). The adjective black generally portrays a feeling of darkness, sorrow, or even death—in this case, perhaps the end of a relationship. The delicate material, namely lace, that is contained on the outside edge of other material may connote the mother’s fragile relationship with a significant man “in pre-war Paris” (line 3). The fan, the first gift “he ever gave me” (line 1), means that this item is the first gift that a specific gentleman gave the author’s mother. Sentimental value is usually attached to a first gift, and because this gift was handed down to a descendent, the fan is given even more sentimental or emotional value. The fact that he bought the fan for five francs diminishes its value in a monetary sense, but the fan was purchased in pre-war Paris at a time when five francs may have been a great sum of money. Every line about the fan in the fourth and fifth stanzas is considerably longer than the preceding lines. In fact, any line mentioning the fan is protracted, which conveys the idea of the fan’s significance. Another observation is that the tense changes from past to present. This switch gives the reader the idea that the author is now describing the fan to the reader as if it is in her hands. From the way the gentleman is stated frequently in the second verse, the mother in the third, and the fan in the hands of the daughter in the

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