Question

Read the excerpt from “Autumn” by Jean Starr Untermeyer. Great jars laden with the raw green of pickles, Standing in a solemn row across the back of the porch, Exhaling the pungent dill; What does “laden” mean in this context? filled with decorated covered up laid down

Answer 1

The correct answer is "filled with".

The poem develops a dramatic tension with the use of oxymoronic contrasts that symbolize the opposition of the physical decay of the author's mother with the memories of her prime, when she was a young housewife who ran her household as a "High priestess".

The memories the author has of her mother are always oxymoronic. She remembers her during her respective youths (when the author was a little girl and the mother a young housewife) but the season that she remembers is a season that foreshadows decay, Autumn. Yet, she associates Autumn with "keen sunshine, stirred with the activity of those energetic days".

Thus, the great jars laden with the raw green pickles symbolize her mother's body. A great old jar laden with the memories of those green years, all those green memories when the author was as young and as small as a pickle. Her mother is old now, but the author prefers to remember her youthful days when death and decay were only looming on the horizon but still very far. Her mother is not an empty old vessel but laden with the rich and loving memories of her life.

Answer 2

In this context "laden" means filled with.