Time Is a Mother Summary
Ocean Vuong

Time Is a Mother Overview

Ocean Vuong's Time Is a Mother is a collection of 28 poems. Over the course of the collection, Vuong employs a range of poetic registers and forms in order to capture the fragility of childhood, the transience of love, and the inevitability of death. Although each poem engrosses the reader in a new series of sensory images, all of the poems simultaneously consider the possibilities and deficiencies of the written word. Vuong's Time Is a Mother captures the simultaneous beauty of being alive and gravity of losing loved ones. The collection considers themes including, death, loss, childhood, and the past.