5.Father to Son

Poem-5

Father to Son

By Elizabeth Jennings

Father to Son Poem Introduction

Elizabeth Jennings wrote the poem 'Father to Son.' The poem depicts the anguish of a father who has a strained relationship with his son. His son has grown up and is leading a full life. The father is bitter about the generation gap between them and the feeling of separation. He expresses his feelings by stating that he doesn't know much about him and that there is no sign of understanding. He wishes for their relationship to be similar to that of his son when he was a child. He is doing everything he can to solve the problem, but it is futile. As a result, they are drifting apart.

Father to Son Poem Summary

The poem is about a father's anguish as he rants about his uneasy relationship with his grown-up son. He admits that despite living in the same house for years, he doesn't understand him. He knows nothing about him, and even if he tried to build a relationship with him like he did when he was a small child, it would be futile.

He goes on to say that even though his son looks like him, he has no idea what he loves. He recognises their communication gap and lack of understanding, and they speak as strangers. His son is in a different place, which he cannot reach due to the growing gap. There is silence between them. He is willing to forgive his errant son. He wants to welcome him back to the house he has always known. He does not want his son to travel the world. He longs to be loved by him.

Finally, the son speaks up and expresses his feelings. He is at a point where he is unable to understand himself. He is saddened by the growing distance between them, and he is angry as a result of his grief and sadness. They put out an empty hand towards each other but none of them holds it. They want to forgive each other but can't come up with a solution.

Father to Son Poem 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

The poet expresses his feelings about his relationship with his son in the preceding stanza. He says that despite the fact that they have both lived in the same house for many years, he does not understand him. He knows nothing about his son's likes and dislikes. From the time he was vain and small, he tried to establish a relationship with him. His son has evolved 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.

• Sown – do something which will bring a result

In the first line, the father uses the word 'I' to acknowledge his role in the communication gap between them. He says that despite his best efforts, his son was in another place that the father could not reach. They used to talk to each other as if they were strangers, with no sign of understanding. His son used to look like him, but he had no idea what he liked.

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.

• Prodigal – spending money freely

There is no word 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 be free to roam and create his own world. He was ready to forgive him and let go of the sorrows he carried within him as a result of him, as a result of the distance between them. He wanted to love him once more.

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.

• Grief – sorrow, sadness

For the first time, the son speaks up and expresses his feelings. He is also saddened by the distance between them. He admits that he is at a point in his life where he does not understand himself. His anger arises from his sadness. It is clear that both sides are frustrated with the gap in their relationship. They both want to forgive each other, but they can't come up with a solution. Both of them put out an empty hand for the other to seek, always in vain.

Father to Son Poem Literary Devices

1. Simile – a figure of speech that makes comparison and shows similarities between two things

We speak like strangers

2. 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

3. 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?

I would have
Him prodigal, returning to
His father’s house

About the Poet

Elizabeth Jennings, full name Elizabeth Joan Jennings, (born July 18, 1926 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England—died October 26, 2001 in Bampton, Oxfordshire), English poet whose works deal with intensely personal subjects in a straightforward, traditional, and objective style, and whose verse frequently reflects her devout Roman Catholicism and love of Italy.