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Direct Address
All of "the mother" is a direct address to an audience. The mother sometimes speaks to her reading audience, sometimes she speaks to herself, sometimes she speaks to her non-existent children. These changes of address have a huge effect on the poem. When she speaks to her readers, the mother effectively implicates us in her life—particularly, in her decision to have an abortion. When she speaks to herself, we feel like we are overhearing her working through some serious issues. And when she speaks to her non-existent children, it's almost as if she calls them to life—she imagines that they are real, live, human beings. Brooks accomplishes so much with just a few shifts in address.
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