Edward: Anonymous

This poem, when I first read it, was rather confusing. I wondered, did he kill a hawk and a steed and his father. But thanks to our group discussions today, I think I now understand what the poem was saying to some degree. Edward first admits to killing a hawk which he loves, then a good steed. In these ways, he is trying to avoid stating the truth himself, how he has killed his father. Additionally, but covering it up by stating things he loved, he is still trying to express his love for his father, though at the same time trying to deny what he has done. The mother does not react throughout this poem, and at the end, the author reveals why, by writing how the mother has given counsel to her son. In other words, she may well have told him to kill his father, against the son's own good will. This would also explain why the son was damning his mother to hell. Finally, the son speaks of leaving after admitting to killing his father. When he says he will leave his buildings and towers and family, he may either plan to run away, or to kill himself from grief. Either way, this poem effectively expresses a story, though it is vague in places. Its description of the boy's emotions also helps comprehension of the poem. I only wish I could know what might happen next in the story.