Father to Son by Elizabeth Jennings
About
the Poet
Elizabeth Jennings was an English poet. She was born in Boston and was well-known for her
lyric poetry
About
the Poem
The
poem seems to be personal if read superfluously, but if given a deep thought it
unfolds a universal theme of ‘communication gap’ between parents and their
children. Here it deals with the communication gap between a son and his
father. In this modern world, many fathers undergo similar mental pain as we
find the father in the poem undergoing it. If the reader wants to understand
the poem fully, it should be understood from the point-of-views, the father’s
and that of the son.
The
father who brings up his ‘son’ in the hope that he would make him his true copy
both physically and mentally is mistaken completely. Such fathers are bound to
receive a rude when their sons become fully different from them.
Line to line Explanation of the Poem
“I do not understand this
child/
Though we have lived together now/
In the same house for years.”
Explanation: The ‘father’, in the poem, says that he does not understand ‘this
child’ i.e. his son although both of them have lived for years together so far
in the same house.
“Yet have I killed /
The seed I spent or sown it where/
The land is his and none of mine? “
Explanation: The father asks himself if he has wasted the seed.
Now, the question arises as to
how the seed is wasted.
A seed is wasted when it does not
sprout into a plant after being sown into the soil. But here, the son has grown
up and we cannot say that ‘the seed’ has been wasted.
Here, the seed means the ‘seed of
relationship’ that the father sowed into the mind of his son since the days of
his childhood thinking that the boy would develop the point of view towards
life similar to that of him.
The son did grow up like a
healthy tree, but he has a different mindset. He does not think about what his
father wants from him. He did become his father’s carbon-copy physically, but
mentally he has his own independent thinking towards life. This is the reason why his father says that that he has “killed the seed”.
Another question the ‘father’
asks himself is if he has sown ‘it’ (the seed) in the land that did not belong
to him.
It is a known fact that if you
grow a seed into s other’s land, you cannot claim the crop or the fruit until you
have some mutual understanding. Here, the father means to say that he has sowed
the seeds of his ideas into his son’s mind, but his ideas did not cause any
fruitful effect there.
The son did not mould his own
personality in the frame which his father had desired. When he grew up, he
turned into a different personality. No ideas were common between them. That’s
why they speak like ‘strangers’.
“We speak like strangers,
there's no sign/
Of understanding in the air...”
Explanation: As both of them (the father and the son) have ‘no common thoughts’,
they speak like strangers. There is no sign (hint) of mutual understanding
between them.
Sometimes fathers behave like a
boss. So, sons do not feel comfortable in sharing their ‘joys and sorrows with
them. They feel more comfortable with their mothers. Here in the poem, the
father does not make it clear as to what type of ‘understanding’ he wants to
create with his son. We can guess that they had ‘clash of ideas’ towards random
questions or problems of life.
“This child is built to my
design/
Yet what he loves I cannot share. /
Silence surrounds us…..”
Explanation: The meaning in the above lines is very much clear. The father
says that the son has a full physical resemblance with him. It may mean in terms
of height, facial features and expression, complexion, etc. In spite of that,
the father cannot share what he (the son) loves. Here ‘design’ means physical
structure and resemblance.
When the father says that ‘what he loves I cannot share’, he means
to say that his son has different likes, dislikes, tastes and so many other
ideas. All this is proof of one thing that the father wanted to make his son
a ‘dummy personality’ due to his selfish motives and ignorance of the knowledge
about human psychology.
It can be concluded on the above
discussion that the father is to be blamed for creating a problem for himself.
The son has nothing to do it. Silence prevails between them due this ‘communication gap’ that has been
created by the father.
“I would have/
Him prodigal, returning to/
His father's house, the home he knew, /
Rather than see him make and move/
His world….”
Explanation: ‘A prodigal ( /ˈprɒd.ɪ.ɡəl/) son’ is the one who has left his family to do something that his
family did not allow him to do, and after some time, he has returned home
feeling sorry for his mistake. The father wants his ‘son’ to come back home
like a prodigal son. The use of the phrase ‘His father's house’ shows that the
father is authoritative and does not think that ‘the house’ belongs to his son
also.
On one side, the father calls the son ‘his’, on the other side, he
says that he should return to ‘his father’s house’. Rather he should have said
that ‘the son should return to his house’. Thus, the father is
responsible to create estrangement (rift, separation) between the son and
himself.
The use of such phrases show that the father never tried to put in
emotional strength in the relationship while he tried to develop it since the
days of his son’s childhood.
“Rather than see him make
and move/
His world.”
Explanation: The father would like that his son should come back home and he
would not like to see him making his own house, making his own world where he
can move of his own.
The above line “Rather than see him make and move/His world.” shows
that the father does not like that his son should become independent and
develop his own world where he could move freely. If he returns home, he would forgive him.
Thus, after forgiving him, he would shape (develop) a new relationship out of
the sad one that was there already between them.
“I would forgive him too, /
Shaping from sorrow a new love. /
Father and son, we both must live/
On the same globe and the same land. “
Explanation: In the above stanza, the father
expresses his desire that both of them (the father and the son) must live on
the same globe (the earth) and the same land (here, it may mean the
nation/country). His father wants him to live in his father’s house, where he
can develop a new relationship out of the sad one.
“He speaks: I cannot
understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.”
Explanation: In the above lines, the father quotes the sentence spoken by his
son. In the above lines ‘he’ stands for his son. The son says that he cannot
understand himself and the reason as to why anger grows from grief. From the
above lines, one thing is clear that the son is confused about ‘something’. A
constant struggle may be going on in his mind. It may be about making a type of
compromise that is made when one fails or feels helpless to proceed further
with the present odd situation. It is a kind of compromise which takes place
when one is defeated.
The son may have struggled hard
to make his career, but may have failed in this competitive world. Now he might
be thinking to come back to his father’s house. A person feels grief when he or
she is helpless to improve the situation and this ‘helplessness’ further cause
anger. One feels angry on oneself because one is unable to change the
situation. So the son has to remain dependent on his father.
“We each put out an empty
hand, /
Longing for something to forgive.”
In the above lines, ‘we’ stands
for ‘the father’ and ‘the son’. The father says that both of them extend empty
hand forward to shake and long (wish) to forgive each other. The question
arises here as to why the adjective ‘empty’ used in front of the noun ‘hand’.
When a person shakes hands with
those of another person, the hands are always empty. But if the meaning is
taken at the deeper level, the hand is never empty. It has the warmth of love. But
in this case, the emotion of love is missing at present. It has to take place
in the new relationship that will emerge out of ‘sorrow’.
What does ‘something’ mean
in the second line above ‘Longing for something to forgive’?
Here ‘something’ may stand for the ‘issue or problem’ that made
both of them estranged (separated) from each other.
Thus the father in the poem hopes that a new relationship would
emerge out of the dead one as the phoenix bird takes birth out of its own
ashes.
In this way, the discussion on this poem ends up.
(A) Short Answer-type Questions (About 30-40 words each)
Q1.
Explain the lines: “Yet have I killed
The seed I spent or sown it where
The land is his and none of mine?”
Ans. the father means to say
that he has sowed the seeds of his ideas into his son’s mind, but his ideas did
not cause any fruitful effect there. The son did not mould his own personality
in the frame which his father had desired.
Q2. Explain the lines:“This child is built to
my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
Silence surrounds us…..”
Ans. The meaning in the
above lines is very much clear. The father says that the son has full physical
resemblance with him.
Q4. What is the reason for this kind of
relationship between the son and the father in the poem?
Ans. It is
communciation gap that is responsible for such a bad type of relationship
between the father and the son. Sometimes
fathers behave like a boss. So, sons do not feel comfortable in sharing their
‘joys and sorrows’ with them. They feel more comfortable with their mothers.
Q5. What can be estimated about the
son’s state of mind from the lines, “He speaks: I cannot understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.”
Ans. From the above lines, one thing is clear that the son
is confused about ‘something’. A constant struggle may be going on in his mind.
It may be about making a type of compromise that is made when one fails or
feels helpless to proceed further with the present odd situation.
It is a kind
of compromise which takes place when one is defeated. The son may have
struggled hard to make his career, but may have failed in this competitive
world. Now he might be thinking to come back his father’s house.
Q 6. Explain the lines: “We each put out an empty hand, /Longing
for something to forgive.”
Ans. In the above lines, ‘we’ stands for ‘the father’ and
‘the son’. The father says that each of them extend his empty hand forward to shake and long to
forgive each other. The question arises here as to why the adjective ‘empty’
used in front of the noun ‘hand’.
When a person shakes hands with another
person, the hands are always empty. But if the meaning is taken at the deeper
level, the hand is never empty. It has warmth of love. But in this case, the emotion of love is
missing at present. It has to take place in the new relationship that will
emerge out of ‘sorrow’.
(B)
Some Important Stanzas for
Comprehension
Stanza
1
“I do not understand this child
Though we have lived together now
In the same house for years.”
Q1. Who is
“I” in the above stanza?
Ans. It is
the father in the above stanza.
Q2. Why does
the “I” say that he does not understand that child?
Ans. The
father does not understand what the son wants.
Q3. Who is
the child mentioned in the stanza?
Ans. The child
is the son of the father, the narrator in this poem.
Q4. Name the
poem and its poet.
Ans. The title of the poem is Father to Son and the poet is Elizabeth Jennings
Stanza 2
“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. ..”
“This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
Silence surrounds us…..”
Q1. For What
does the ‘seed’ stand ?
Ans. It
stands for the seed of ideas.
Q2. Why does
the father say that he has spent the seed he had sown?
Ans. He says
so because his son’s mind-set is different from his own. He expected the same
ideas as he has in his mind.
Q3. Why do
they behave like strangers?
Ans. No ideas were common between them. That’s why they
speak like ‘strangers’.
Q4. What is
the reason for this kind of relationship between the son and the father in the
poem?
Ans. It is
communciation gap that is responsible for such a bad type of relationship
between the father and the son. Sometimes
fathers behave like a boss. So, sons do not feel comfortable in sharing their
‘joys and sorrows’ with them. They feel more comfortable with their mothers.
Q5. What is meant by the word ‘design’ in the
poem?
Ans. Here ‘design’ means physical structure and
resemblance.
Q6. Explain
the expression: ‘what he loves I cannot share’.
Ans. When the father says that ‘what he loves I cannot
share’, he means to say that his son has different likes, dislikes, tastes and
so many other ideas.
Stanza 3
“I would have
Him prodigal, returning to
His father's house, the home he knew,
Rather than see him make and move
His world….”
Q1. Who is a
prodigal son?
Ans. ‘A prodigal son’ is the one who has left
his family to do something that his family did not allow him to do, and after
sometime, he has returned home feeling sorry for his mistake.
Q2. What
does the father want?
Ans. The
father wants that the son should return to his house unconditionally.
Q3. What do
the words ‘his father's house’ indicate?
Ans. The use
of the words ‘his father's house’ show that the father does not want his son
not to make his claim on the house. It shows father’s possessive nature also.
He wantes his son to possess him like a thing.
Q4. Explain the line: “Rather than see him make and move/His
world.”
Ans. The father would like that his son should come back
and he would not like to see him making his own house, making his own world
where he can move of his own.
The above
line “Rather than see him make and move/His world.” shows that the father does
not like that his son should become independent and develop his own world of
his own and where he could move freely. If he
returns home, he would forgive him. Thus, after forgiving him, he would shape
(develop) a new relationship out of the sad one that was there already
between them.
Stanza 4
“I would forgive him too,
Shaping from sorrow a new love.
Father and son, we both must live
On the same globe and the same land.”
Q1. What
does the father want to shape now?
Ans The
father wants to shape a new relationship out of the sad one.
Q2. What
thought has forced the father to develop a new relationship out of the old one?
Ans. The father reaches a conclusion that both the sone and the father must
live together in the same house.
Q3. What
meaning does the line ‘On the same globe
and the same land’may convey?
Ans. The
same globe stands for the earth and the same land means the same
nation/country.
Stanza 5
“He speaks: I cannot understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.”
Q1. Who is
‘He’ in the above lines?
Ans. “he” is
the son in the above lines.
Q2. Who
cannot understand and what?
Ans. The son
cannot understand why anger grows in him from grief.
Q3. What do each of them long?
Ans. Each of
them long for something to forgive each other.
Q4. What
could be something in the above lines?
Ans. It
could be the past behavior that they showed towards each other.
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