FATHER TO SON

By Elizabeth Jennings
Question 1: Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it
fairly universal?
Answer: The poem describes the relationship between a Father and his son. It
begins on a personal experience, but later changes into a fairly universal
condition—the growing generation gap and lack of communication.
Question 2: How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
Answer: The father wants to fix the broken bond between himself and his son.
Usually a father is the best friend and advisor of the son. However, here, he
feels like his own son is a stranger living in the same house. The father feels
helpless that he cannot show his love to his son in a way that he will
understand.
Question 3: What does the speaker say about father-son relationship?
Answer: The father-son relationship is disconnected. The father does not
understand the aspirations, longings or desires of the son. They speak like
strangers. Their exchanges are just formal. Otherwise, silence surrounds them.

Figures of speech.
1) ″We speak like strangers, there’s no sign″
Simile- The figure of speech is Similie, because the word ′like′ is used to
compare the father-son relationship with that of a stranger.

2) ″Silence surrounds us″

The figure of speech is Alliteration because the sound S is repeated.

3) ″Rather than see him make and move″

The figure of speech is Alliteration because the sound M is repeated.

4) ″On the same globe and the same land″

The figure of speech is Repetition because the word same is repeated
5) ″Shaping from sorrow a new love.″ Inversion
The figure of speech is Inversion because the usual order of the words is
reversed.

6) ″Yet what he loves I cannot share.″ Inversion

The figure of speech is Inversion because the usual order of the words is
reversed.