Presenting the Past: An Analysis of Robert Kroetsch’s “Birthday” and “I Am Getting Old Now”

Abstract

Robert Kroetsch occupies an illustrious position in the gallery of the twentieth century Canadian literature. He is a poet, novelist, editor and teacher, all rolled into one. He is renowned for his adept use of postmodern techniques in his writings. His poems “Birthday: June 26, 1983” and “I Am Getting Old Now” spins around the mother-son relationship. The presence of the poet who is in his childhood is captured in both the poems (visibly or invisibly) and his intimate bond with his mother is clearly portrayed. But these poems differ in the technique, the poet has used to portray his childhood and the image of his mother. In “Birthday” it is framed in the form of a photograph while in the poem “I Am Getting Old Now”, it is portrayed in the shape of a dream. Both the poems deal with the evolution of time and its effect on the poet by bringing in the contrasting images of his childhood and agility. The poet who has grown older than his mother also occupies a significant place in both the poems. Thus, many similarities can be traced between both the verses and most significant among them is the representation of time, i.e., the past and the present. The paper therefore strives to explore the significance of time in these select poems, focusing on how ‘past’ is represented in relation with the present in both the texts.