3. POEM
What has happened to Lulu, mother ?
What has happened to Lu?
There’s nothing in her bed but an old rag-doll
And by its side a shoe.
Why is her window wide, mother,
The curtain flapping free,
And only a circle on the dusty shelf
Where her money-box used to be?
4. Why do you turn your head, mother,
And why do the tear-drops fall?
And why do you crumpled the noted on the fire
And say it is nothing at all?
I woke to voices last night,
I heard an engine roar.
Why do you tell me the things I heard
Were a dream and nothing more?
5. I heard somebody cry, mother,
In anger or in pain,
But now I ask you why, mother,
You say it was a gust of rain.
Why do you wander about as though
You don’t know what to do?
What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lulu?
6. MEANING
The persona is questioning about the mysterious and
sudden disappearance of Lulu. Two pieces of Lulu’s
childhood have been left behind – an old rag-doll
The persona observes that the windows are open wide and
the curtain flapping free in the wind. The persona notices
the dusty shelf where her money-box used to be
7. The persona asks the mother why she is hiding her tears.
The mother crumples up a note(most probably from Lulu)
and throws it into the fire. Then mother tells her child that
it is nothing at all but the persona disbelieves her
The persona says she was awakened by voices late last
night and heard the sounds of an engine roar, probably a
car starting up and being driven away. The mother says that
the child was dreaming
8. Undaunted, the persona insists that she had heard someone cry in anger
or in pain . The mother says it was a gust of rain
Puzzled about the mother’s distraught behavior, the child narrator wants
to know why the mother is pacing about uncertain what to do . The use
of Lu in line 2 and 24 is an affectionate shortened form of Lulu
9. SYNOPSIS
A child is asking his mother what has happened to his
sister, Lu. There is nothing in her room and her money-box
has gone with only an open window and an old rag-doll left
behind. His mother is crying and burning a note. He thinks
he heard a voices and a car in middle of the night but his
mother tells him he was only dreaming.
10. THEME
Coping with the lost of
family member
Parent-child
relationship
Grief and
love
The end of childhood and the
lost of innocence
17. Why the mother burns the note in the fire?
• She is very upset by what she read in Lulu’s letter
• She is depressed and blaming herself for her failure as a parent
18. In stanza 2, which phrase indicates that
Lulu has run away from home?
‘Why is her window wide, mother?’
19. Besides running away, what other reasons
can you think about Lulu’s disappearance?
• Lulu may have been kidnapped or she left to stay with a friend
• We can only guess that she was taken away or she had left home
on her own accord