Red and White

In the poem “Lanyard”, Billy Collins truly summarizes what we all feel for our mother or guardian at one time in our life, appreciation.  I loved reading this poem but a few things really stuck out to me.

We all know what lanyards are, but I decided to look into them a little more. From what I found lanyards are pretty ordinary and there is not much symbolism behind them. A lanyard is a piece of rope or cord or plastic that you wear to keep you from losing something (Ryan). I think this says a lot about the poem right off the bat.

 As we read we begin to see the connection of mother and son.  The man begins to look into his past of when he went to camp as a young boy. The author goes on to say that he made a boxy red and white lanyard for his mother. At first, I read the rest of the poem and skipped right over the color details. When I went back into the text, I looked up to see if the color red and white symbolized anything. In my investigate I found that red symbolizes strong emotions and white symbolizes admiration and humility (Ryan).

In an instant I thought to myself, how great is it that those colors go with the feelings of the author in the poem. Collins expresses his appreciation for his mother. All he could offer her in return for all she had supplied him with his whole life, was this red and white boxed lanyard. In everything the lanyard and its colors show the authors strong emotions for his mother, his admiration and humility towards her, as well as his desire to not want to lose that special relationship that they have. 

I loved that Collins was able to express his emotions so perfectly. We can all reflect back into our past and see what we have done for our mothers or guardians and compare what they have done for us. I believe that it is just revelation to us of how much God loves us and cares for us even though we have nothing but our lives to offer him. 

                                             Works Cited
Ryan. "Lanyard." Cadet World. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.cadet-

           world.com/cwforums/showthread.php?25762-lanyard>.