Commentary on To Mai by Musaemura by Keith Chan "To Mai" is an epistolary poem written in a relatively dated style in which Musaemura reassured her mother that he is still alive and has great belief that he would, in the near future, be released from the detention. The first person narrative prevents the use of direct description of Mai’s depression and worries. The audience of the poem is his mother which could be proofed from line 10 ‘Calm your heart, mother.’ The fragmented sentences and uneven paragraph lengths and spacing infer the informal style and tone of this poem. The main purpose of the poem is given powerfully straight away at the beginning of the first stanza. The poet then comforts her mother by clarifying his situation and shows his will of returning home and meeting his mother. The parallel structure in the beginning of the first stanza shows the strength and strong believe Musaemura would like to convey about his aliveness. By repeating ‘I am alive, Mai.’ Musaemura would like to tell her mother not to worry about him and that he is in good state. Metaphor use in line 6 to 7 exaggerates how pessimistic Mai is towards her son’s detention and conveys Musaemura’s concern over her mother’s over anxious. Comfort and assurance is felt when reading through. Moreover, the use of onomatopoeia in words ‘gnaw’ and ‘grief’ adds motion and power to the chewing action driven by sadness. From the word ‘lost’ in line 12, it implies that Mai pessimistically assumes that Musaemura is already dead and has no hope of seeing him again. Further down the stanza, the use of imagery in line 13 ‘the leopard’s mouth’ gives a concrete idea of the strong power and fear created by authorities. This clearly shows that Musaemura's situation was dangerous and not optimistic. Musaemura was trying to pull Mai out of the negative ideology to more optimistic thoughts. Inversion is used in line 16 ‘so comforting you were’ emphasising the strong sense of comfort given by Musaemura’s mother during the times when they were still together. Again, the use of parallel structure in the following two lines place significance on the strong belief Musaemura has that he will soon be released from detention. ‘Morning, Mai’ a simple yet lively dialogue that actually demonstrates the enthusiasm of the poet wanting to see his mother in real, but not in a dream. The poet tries to assure his mother by apparently assuring others in the third stanza. ‘A pity she should think I am dead’ is repeating the fact that he is not dead, only in detention. Also, he used his friend who was also under indefinite detention to show that misfortune is not just happening on Mai and would like to lessen the anxiety Mai has because of missing her son for so long. The lyrics ‘It’s not I alone who has trouble.’ sounds like Musaemura singing to Mai directly and softly in a manner like trying to stop a baby cry. Pumpkin mentioned in the last stanza must be one of the favourite dishes Mai loved. ‘I long for pumpkins cooked in the same clay-pot with round nuts.’ shows that Musaemura yearns for the dishes at home and at the same time shows the strong hope to be released. Although he was ‘puking’, he still has not yet given up and has great hope that he will be freed. I have sympathy towards the situation of the poet and appreciate his optimistic way of thinking. Even there is no clear date and indication of when he is going to be released add with the pain he is suffering from, the poet still has strong belief that he will one day returning home and be able to greet his mother. I felt touched as the poet took the initiative to write to comfort her mother.