Poem - Father to Son Class 11 English Hornbill

Key Points of the Poem

• The poem ‘Father to Son’ is by the author Elizabeth Jennings. 
• The Father to Son summary deals with the anguish of a father who lacks a good relationship with his son. 
• Furthermore, his son is now an adult. 
• Moreover, his son is now busy in life. 
• Also, the father is bitter regarding the generation gap between him and his son. 
• He is troubled by a feeling of separation with his son. 
• The father expresses his feeling by saying that he does not know much about his son. 
• There also is no sign of understanding. 
• The father has a desire that he wants his relationship with his son to be just like when his son was a child. 
• He tries to mend the relationship but the efforts are in vain. 
• He tries his best to resolve this issue with his son but with no success.  
• So, they are drifting apart.

Detailed Summary  

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.

Poem
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.

Poem
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.

Poem
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.

Conclusion

Literary Devices

Difficult Words

• Grief – sorrow, sadness
• Prodigal – spending money freely
• Sown – do something which will bring a result