Ave Maria Frank O’Hara’s “Ave Maria” can be a great voice for mothers depending on the way it is interpreted. The name of the poem itself literally holds a Latin meaning “Hail Mary.” Hail Mary is prayer to the Virgin Mary saluting her to the mother of God which conveys that this poem will reach out to mothers in a serious way. The first time I read this poem through I began to relate. I could relate to almost every part of the poem. Ave Maria can either be a good way of giving advice to a mother or it can be bad. Most will take the literal meaning but from my personal experience the literal meaning may not be the best way to go. O’Hara uses his thoughts, opinion and sarcasm to reach out to the mothers of America. speaks on parenting as a mother and their relationship with their child. Frank O’ Hara speaks on parenting as a mother and their relationship with their child. He began telling mothers to let their children out of the house. He quotes, “Mothers of America/ let your kids go to the movies (lines1&2)!” It’s good to let them get away from you so they won’t have to know what you, as a parent, are always doing. O’ Hara uses the movies as a way to get his point across because that is a common place where kids like to go alone. “When you grow old as grow old you must/ they won’t hate you (lines7&8).” That’s only because they won’t know how it is to be held in. As they’re out the child will feel to be in the best moments of their life. “They will know where candy bars came from/ and gratuitous bags of popcorn (lines16&17).” He uses bags of popcorn and candy because he knows a kid will know what that is but being out they can at least find out about the simplest things. Continuing on from telling how “gratuitous” the popcorn is he tells how “gratuitous” it would be to be able to leave the movie early with a stranger to the stranger’s apartment. O’Hara describes the apartment saying it is the “Heaven on Earth Bldg.” That is just how it will feel to the kid when they get to do things like that. A mother will have made their child happy not picking them up from the theatre. Let’s say you do pick them up, the child would still have been entertained either way. They may be up in their room, mad, hating you although you won’t have done anything so horrible except keep them from the “darker joys.” O’Hara ends with a lot of sarcasm. He basically is giving his thought on how you choose to take this poem. “It’s unforgivable the latter so don’t blame me if you won’t take the advice (lines32&33).” What exactly is he trying to say here? Your child being mad at you for something simple as picking them up from the movies is unforgivable is complete sarcasm. He is trying to tell you that can be forgiven so it won’t be a bad idea If his advice is the route you choose to take. It’s up to the mother whether they choose to listen or not.

There isn’t a particular rhyme scheme in “Ave Maria.” In the beginning O’Hara rhymes some words that sound very similar but don’t exactly rhyme. In the line, “but what about the soul/that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images.” Soul and grow somewhat rhyme but come right after each other so aren’t exactly part of a rhyme scheme. Hookey and country rhyme in the line, “they’ll be in the same glamorous country/they first saw on a Saturday afternoon or playing hooky (lines10&11).” Those two lines rhyme to where you can see a rhyme scheme could be created right after. There aren’t any more rhymes after those lines. The way this poems sentence structure is set up makes it hard to identify each stanza from the next. The lines have no certain pattern, are spread apart and broken up. What was the author’s reason for this line set up? Is there significance to the way the lines flow? The line set up created an easier flow. It flowed and broke in a train of thought giving a better understanding of how the author was thinking as a whole. Reading this poem I began to relate. Poems can be interpreted in a variety of ways. There are two main interpretations that will be made with this poem. Someone will either take the literal meaning of the poem, or they could really think about what he is trying to say. Think about the changes of thought he made throughout the poem. If you don’t understand what O’Hara is saying you could think he may not know exactly what he is saying himself. From personal experience I was held in the house while I was younger not able to go out and do things by myself with friends without my mother. I thought she was the worse person in the world for not letting me do things as go to the movies alone. I cried all the time and stayed mad at her when I couldn’t go with friends. I really related to the lines; “ Or up in their room Hating you Prematurely since you won’t have done anything horribly mean yet Except keeping them form the darker joys.” As I became an adult I realized that those times I was missing going out were not the worse thing ever and it actually kept me from going out and doing certain bad things other kids were doing. If I had been exposed and let go to the movies I probably would have been doing the same sneaky things as others getting myself in trouble. So instead of growing up and blind in front of a TV watching movies my mother wouldn’t let me see when I was young I thank her instead. Those without a personal experience might look at this poem as O’Hara trying to tell mothers to let their kids be free, go to the movies and get young experiences. From my experience O’Hara is using reverse psychology to get his point across. He is trying to say to mothers letting your kids out of the house may give them some time of joy at the moment but those moments of joy can turn into something bad. There is way to let your kids out of the house in a safe way to keep a good eye on them. If you are going to let them go to the movies make sure you are there to pick them up and not just leave them there to go and do other things besides come home after. Your kid may hate you at the moment but that will not end up being the worse thing in the world.