"Edward" by Anonymous

#13


I would remain anonymous too if I wrote such an awkward, strange, depressing poem. How motherly to advise a son to kill one's husband; it just goes to show the corrupt nature of humans and its timelessness.
The irony in "Edward" becomes evident in the last line of the poem when the mother's motives are exposed: "such counsels you gave to me" explains that she prompted Edward to go through with killing the father. Even as he lies at the beginning by saying, "O I have killed my hawk so good" and "O I have killed my red-roan steed," the mother knows he has really killed the father. Edward talks about killing two things very dear to him before saying he really killed his "father dear." It is ironic that the mother keeps asking what he's killed though she knows all along.
Edward's statements are full of regret especially when he says at the end he gives his mother only "the curse of hell... shall ye bear." This is also ironic as the mother's motives centered around obtaining the wealth and fortune of her dead husband, but all Edward gives her is a curse for what she's made him do.