Father to Son Poem and Explanation
I do
not understand this child
Though
we have lived together now
In
the same house for years. I know
Nothing
of him, so try to build
Up a
relationship from how
He was when small. Yet have I killed
In the above stanza, the poet shares his feelings about his relationship with his son. He says that although they both had lived together in the same house for many years, yet he doesn’t understand him. He doesn’t know anything about his son, his likes and dislikes. He tried to build up a relationship with him from the time he was vain and small. His son has changed as he has grown up.
The
seed I spent or sown it where
The
land is his and none of mine?
We
speak like strangers, there’s no sign
Of
understanding in the air.
This
child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
The father uses ‘I’ in the first line to acknowledge his role in the communication gap between them. He says that despite all efforts, his son was in another place that the father cannot access. They used to talk to each other like strangers and there was no sign of understanding between them. His child used to look like him and yet he didn’t know what his son loved.
Silence
surrounds us. I would have
Him
prodigal, returning to
His
father’s house, the home he knew,
Rather
than see him make and move
His
world. I would forgive him too,
Shaping
from sorrow a new love.
There is silence between them. As a child, he was a prodigal son and now his father wanted him to return to his house, the one he knew. He didn’t want his son to move around and make his own world.He was ready to forgive him and let go of the sorrows he had inside because of him, because of the distance between them. He wanted to love him again.
Father
and son, we both must live
On
the same globe and the same land,
He
speaks: I cannot understand
Myself,
why anger grows from grief.
We
each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.
The son speaks for the first time and explains what he feels. He also feels sad about the distance between them. He shares that he is at a point where he doesn’t understand himself. His anger arises out of his sadness. It is quite clear that on both sides lies the same frustration about the gap in their relationship. They both want to forgive each other and yet they cannot find a solution to the problem. Both of them put out an empty hand for the other to seek, always in vain.
Father to Son Literary Devices
Simile – a figure of speech that makes comparison and shows similarities between two things
We speak like strangers
Alliteration – The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words
The
seed I spent or sown it where – ‘s’ sound
Silence surrounds us
Metaphor – an indirect comparsion between a quality shared by two persons or things
The
seed I spent or sown it where
The land is his and none of mine?
Father to Son Poem Question and Answers
Think it out
1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?
Ans:
The poem ‘Father to Son’ talks about a fairly universal experience. When a child is growing up, the father is usually busy with his work and is not able to take out time for his child. When the father grows older and has free time, his son gets involved in his life and has no time for his old father. This cycle is universal.
2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
Ans:
The father’s helplessness is brought out in the poem by these lines: ‘I do not
understand this child, Though we have lived together now, In the same house for
years.’ ‘He speaks: I cannot understand Myself, why anger grows from grief.’
‘Yet what he loves I cannot share’ and ‘I know Nothing of him’.
These lines indicate how he wanted to make a relationship with his son better and now as his son was like a stranger to him, they both put out an empty hand to each other and remain in vain.
3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.
Ans: The phrases and lines that indicate the distance between both of them are: ‘I do not understand this child, Though we have lived together now, In the same house for years.’ ‘He speaks: I cannot understand Myself, why anger grows from grief.’ ‘Yet what he loves I cannot share’ ‘I know Nothing of him’ and ‘Silence surrounds us’.
4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Ans:
The poem has a consistent rhyme scheme with an open verse format. The short
sentences are juxtaposed with longer sentences.
