The speaker of the Poem is the viewer of the portrait looking at the old portrait of his or her mother whose portrait was painted as a young girl. The poet says that the portrait showed the youthful days of the mother when she was young and glorious. The mother's eyes had a glimmer of Venetian glass. Here it symbolizes mother's happier days. There was another portrait of the mother, the most recent one in which the mother has lost the glimmer that she had in her eyes in her old portrait, and wrinkles have taken over her beautiful eyes. The poet says she has lost the red rose of her wedding day, which means that she has lost the purity and beauty of her youthful days. The Speaker is deeply saddened while comparing the two portraits as the one is like a joy-radiant portrait and another one was like an eclipse. When the speaker looked at the portrait of the faded smiles of the mother, the speaker could not contain himself/herself from smiling and when the speaker looked at the young portrait of the mother, tears could not be contained.
Analysis
The above poem titled, "Before two portraits of my mother", conveys that a picture speaks thousands more words. For instance, the poet says that he/she realized what time has done to their mother's physical features like losing the beauty of youthful days to the time. on other hand, it could also mean that her mother was a happy soul as a young girl, and over time, unknown sufferings have taken a toll on her life which the speaker mentions in stanza 3 where faded lips made her/his heart smile and a smiling girl in the portrait made him/her teary.
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