The speaker of Patricia Beer's "The Lost Woman" grapples with the loss of her mother, who died unexpectedly when the speaker was a child. The poem implies that the speaker didn't have a great relationship with her overbearing mother while she was still alive yet longs to be close to her mother now that she's gone. The speaker idealizes her mother in her memory while also continuing to feel a complicated mixture of guilt and resentment toward this "lost woman," who sharply "snaps" from the grave that her daughter didn't love her enough. Beer first published "The Lost Woman" in 1982 in the London Review of Books, before later including it in her 1983 collection The Lie of the Land. The poem draws on Beer's real life: Beer lost her mother to cancer when she was just 14.

• Read the full text of “The Lost Woman”

• “The Lost Woman” Summary

• “The Lost Woman” Themes

  • 

    Grief, Loss, and Memory

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-18
    • Lines 31-36
  • 

    Mothers and Daughters

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-18
    • Lines 31-36
  • 

    Loss, Inspiration, and the Female Muse

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 19-36

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Lost Woman”

  • Lines 1-6

    My mother went ...
    ... from the gate.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-12

    She never returned ...
    ... ones that clutch.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-18

    I made a ...
    ... OU summer school.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-24

    Many a hero ...
    ... get to know.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-30

    She is nearly ...
    ... does not chide.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 31-36

    But my lost ...
    ... am not lost."

    

    

    

    

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• “The Lost Woman” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-9: “So a romance began. / The ivy-mother turned into a tree”
    • Line 12: “My tendrils are the ones that clutch.”
    • Lines 27-28: “Soft and crepuscular in rabbit- / Light she comes out.”
    • Line 30: “Her country is bland”
    • Lines 35-36: “You are the ghost / With the bat-voice, my dear.”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-11: “The ivy-mother turned into a tree / That still hops away like a rainbow down / The avenue as I approach.”

  • Anaphora

    

    

    

    

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    Where anaphora appears in the poem:

    • Line 23: “Who will not alter, who will not grow,”
    • Lines 33-34: “I sacrificed too much perhaps, / I showed you the way to rise above me”
    • Lines 36-36: “I / am not lost.”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “My mother,” “went with,” “warning”
    • Line 2: “bright,” “bad”
    • Line 4: “brook”
    • Line 5: “back,” “shocking”
    • Line 6: “Ambulance”
    • Line 9: “turned into,” “tree”
    • Line 12: “tendrils,” “clutch”
    • Line 17: “met,” “match”
    • Line 18: “summer school”
    • Line 21: “haunt,” “home”
    • Line 24: “need never,” “know”
    • Line 25: “Her habit”
    • Line 26: “stride”
    • Line 27: “Soft,” “crepuscular”
    • Line 28: “comes,” “Hear how,” “hate”
    • Line 31: “lost,” “snaps”
    • Line 32: “somewhere else”
    • Line 33: “sacrificed,” “perhaps”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “warning / than”
    • Lines 3-4: “morning / And”
    • Lines 4-5: “lane / I”
    • Lines 5-6: “white / Ambulance”
    • Lines 7-8: “saw / Her”
    • Lines 9-10: “tree / That”
    • Lines 10-11: “down / The”
    • Lines 14-15: “marriage / She”
    • Lines 16-17: “village / She”
    • Lines 17-18: “extra-mural / Class”
    • Lines 19-20: “time / And”
    • Lines 20-21: “acquired / A”
    • Lines 25-26: “habit / Is”
    • Lines 27-28: “rabbit- / Light”
    • Lines 28-29: “hate / Themselves”
    • Lines 31-32: “snaps / From”
    • Lines 34-35: “me / And”
    • Lines 35-36: “ghost / With”

• “The Lost Woman” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Ivy-mother
  • Tendrils
  • Canteen
  • Wit
  • Cliché-ridden
  • OU summer school
  • Extra-mural
  • Compensated
  • Alter
  • Benign
  • Stride
  • Crepuscular
  • Rabbit-light
  • Bland
  • Chide
  • Evermore
  • Bat-voice
  • (Location in poem: Line 9: “The ivy-mother turned into a tree”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Lost Woman”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Lost Woman” Speaker

• “The Lost Woman” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Lost Woman”

• More “The Lost Woman” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poet's Voice — Listen to Beer read "The Lost Woman" aloud.

    • Patricia Beer's Obituary — Read this Independent article about Beer's life and legacy.

    • "Compassion in Strange Places": An Essay on Beer's Life and Work — Learn about the events that shaped Beer's life and poetry. 

    • Who Are the Plymouth Brethren? — Read about the fundamentalist Christian sect whose beliefs shaped Beer's upbringing. 

    • Second Chances: A Look at Beer's Collected Poems — Check out an in-depth review of Beer's work via the London Review of Books. 

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