Father to Son
By Elizabeth Jennings
‘Father to Son’ describes the troubled relationship between a father and his son. The poem talks about generation-gap between the father and the son and voices the father’s pain and helplessness in failing to understand his child.
The father wants the same kind of bond with his son as he had when the son was a little child. But now, silence is what surrounds their relationship and there is a complete lack of communication between them. Though they have lived in the same house for years, they behave as strangers.
The father sees his son as the ‘the prodigal son’ who would soon return to his father’s house which was once his very own. The father is unable to understand why in his grief he becomes angry with his son.
As there is still love between both of them, they try to find out a way to resolve their differences but that seems futile. Elizabeth Jennings says that fathers and sons all over the world should learn to live on the same globe and same land. The poem talks about the universal problem – lack of communication and understanding.
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?
Extract Based Q/A
A. 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.
Q1. Who has lived in the same house? How long?
Ans. The father and son had shared the same home for a long time.
Q2. Why does the father say that he knows nothing of him?
Ans. They coexist in the same home as strangers. While they are with each other, there is complete silence all around them. He claims to know nothing about his son as a result.
Q3. What kind of relationship does he want to build up?
Ans. He hopes to have a bond with his son that is similar to the one he had with his son when he himself was younger.
B. Yet have I killed
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.
Q1. What does the word ‘seed’ signify?
Ans. The father’s labor-intensive efforts to raise the child are referred to as the “seed” here in this context.
Q2. What ‘land’ does the speaker speak of?
Ans. The father attempted to plant the seeds of his thoughts in the child’s mind.
Q3. Why do they speak like strangers?
Ans. People speak strangely because they have various outlooks and ways of thinking.
C. This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
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.
Q1. What kind of child had he desired to design?
Ans. He had hoped to create a child that shared his preferences.
Q2. Why does the speaker say ‘this child’ not ‘my child’?
Ans. The speaker says ‘this child’ not ‘my child’ since they don’t share anything in common.
Q3. Explain: ‘Silence surrounds us’.
Ans. The father and son have almost no communication. When they are near each other, there is complete silence.
Q4. What does the father want his son to do?
Ans. He desires that his son visit his father again.
Q5. What is the father prepared to accept?
Ans. He is willing to accept his kid in all of his affluence.
Q6. What does the father not want his son to do?
Ans. The father does not want his son to create and settle in a new world of his own.
Q7. What would the father do to shape a new love from sorrow?
Ans. He would absolve his son of any suffering he may have caused.
D. 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,
Q1. How does the poet feel when his relationship with his son comes under strain?
Ans. The poet is anxious to maintain the family links with his son. He desires that the son returns to his former home.
Q2. What could be the cause for their distancing from each other?
Ans. The growing gulf between the father and his son is due to a lack of understanding. Each is in need of the other, yet due to ego issues, they split apart.
Q3. What do both father and son long for?
Ans. They yearn for a reason to pardon one another.
Q4. What do the words ‘an empty hand’ signify?
Ans. The phrase “an empty hand” refers to the fact that neither the father nor the son have benefited from their current condition of separation. Both of them are empty handed.
Q5. What can’t the father understand?
Ans. The father is perplexed as to why his grief makes him angry.
Q6. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Ans. Yes, the rhyme scheme in each stanza is abbaba.
By Elizabeth Jennings
‘Father to Son’ describes the troubled relationship between a father and his son. The poem talks about generation-gap between the father and the son and voices the father’s pain and helplessness in failing to understand his child.
The father wants the same kind of bond with his son as he had when the son was a little child. But now, silence is what surrounds their relationship and there is a complete lack of communication between them. Though they have lived in the same house for years, they behave as strangers.
The father sees his son as the ‘the prodigal son’ who would soon return to his father’s house which was once his very own. The father is unable to understand why in his grief he becomes angry with his son.
As there is still love between both of them, they try to find out a way to resolve their differences but that seems futile. Elizabeth Jennings says that fathers and sons all over the world should learn to live on the same globe and same land. The poem talks about the universal problem – lack of communication and understanding.
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?
Extract Based Q/A
A. 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.
Q1. Who has lived in the same house? How long?
Ans. The father and son had shared the same home for a long time.
Q2. Why does the father say that he knows nothing of him?
Ans. They coexist in the same home as strangers. While they are with each other, there is complete silence all around them. He claims to know nothing about his son as a result.
Q3. What kind of relationship does he want to build up?
Ans. He hopes to have a bond with his son that is similar to the one he had with his son when he himself was younger.
B. Yet have I killed
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.
Q1. What does the word ‘seed’ signify?
Ans. The father’s labor-intensive efforts to raise the child are referred to as the “seed” here in this context.
Q2. What ‘land’ does the speaker speak of?
Ans. The father attempted to plant the seeds of his thoughts in the child’s mind.
Q3. Why do they speak like strangers?
Ans. People speak strangely because they have various outlooks and ways of thinking.
C. This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
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.
Q1. What kind of child had he desired to design?
Ans. He had hoped to create a child that shared his preferences.
Q2. Why does the speaker say ‘this child’ not ‘my child’?
Ans. The speaker says ‘this child’ not ‘my child’ since they don’t share anything in common.
Q3. Explain: ‘Silence surrounds us’.
Ans. The father and son have almost no communication. When they are near each other, there is complete silence.
Q4. What does the father want his son to do?
Ans. He desires that his son visit his father again.
Q5. What is the father prepared to accept?
Ans. He is willing to accept his kid in all of his affluence.
Q6. What does the father not want his son to do?
Ans. The father does not want his son to create and settle in a new world of his own.
Q7. What would the father do to shape a new love from sorrow?
Ans. He would absolve his son of any suffering he may have caused.
D. 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,
Q1. How does the poet feel when his relationship with his son comes under strain?
Ans. The poet is anxious to maintain the family links with his son. He desires that the son returns to his former home.
Q2. What could be the cause for their distancing from each other?
Ans. The growing gulf between the father and his son is due to a lack of understanding. Each is in need of the other, yet due to ego issues, they split apart.
Q3. What do both father and son long for?
Ans. They yearn for a reason to pardon one another.
Q4. What do the words ‘an empty hand’ signify?
Ans. The phrase “an empty hand” refers to the fact that neither the father nor the son have benefited from their current condition of separation. Both of them are empty handed.
Q5. What can’t the father understand?
Ans. The father is perplexed as to why his grief makes him angry.
Q6. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Ans. Yes, the rhyme scheme in each stanza is abbaba.
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