Edward

Edward is a poem that I don't really care for.  I think the author used the repetition of the phrases "Edward, Edward" and "Mother, Mother" to show the apparent intimacy and intensity of the mother-son relationship within the poem.  Edward tried to lie first that he had "killed [his] hawk" (anonymous, 977) and his horse, and that his mother soon called his bluff.  I don't understand why he had killed his father?  I feel like this Edward cares little for anyone but himself.  The biggest indicator of this is the fact that he apparently slaughtered his father at knife-point.  He can't have done it for the riches.  From the rest of the poem, it sounds like he had towers and halls and wealth at his fingertips.  But he wasn't going to stay to take care of these things and take responsibility for his actions.  He was planning on being a coward and sailing away across the sea.  How could he be so callous about his wife and children??  He went so far as to suggest that the world was large enough for them to just beg on the streets and survive.  He was so willing to abandon all that he should have been living to protect.