The main idea of the poem, "Grandmother" by Ray Young Bear, an American poet, is love and reminiscence. The poem introduces the theme of love dipped in reverence for speaker's grandmother. At the same time he has the feeling of loss towards his grandmother as he hypothesizes the shape, voice, hands of his dead grandmother. To be precise, the poem is about the love and reminiscence of the speaker towards his dead grandmother whom he finds all-loving and all-inspiring. The speaker expresses his love towards his grandmother by painting her picture in the poem. He still has the fresh memory of his grandmother, thus sketches her lively portrait in the poem. We see, feel and hear the poet's grandmother along with him. To another level of reading the poem, we find the speaker exploring into his own identity as a Red-Indian poet, Ray Young Bear is conscious of his past. Thus, the grandmother becomes an instrument to drive him into his past the time of harmony. Symbolically, the poet connects us to the oldest part of the earth. The phrase 'a voice coming from the rock and the smell of root' is a point in case.
Source: Old Is Gold
