FATHER TO SON-Elizabeth Jennings

Presented byS.DURGA SHREE

Class 11Kendriya Vidyalaya

Karaikudi

I.ABOUT THE POETESSElizabeth Jennings, in full Elizabeth Joan Jennings (born July 18, 1926, Boston, Lincolnshire, England—died October 26, 2001, Brampton, Oxford shire) English poet whose works relate intensely personal matters in a plainspoken, traditional, and objective style and whose verse frequently reflects her devout Roman Catholicism and her love of Italy. Jennings was educated at Oxford High School and St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Her first pamphlet, Poems, appeared in 1953, followed by A Way of Looking (1955), which won her a Somerset Maugham Award and enabled her to visit Italy. Song for a Birth or a Death (1961) marked a new development, with its confessional tone and more savage view of love. Some of the best of her later poems concern her nervous breakdown and its aftermath, such as those collected in Recoveries (1964) and The Mind Has Mountains (1966). Other works include The Animals’ Arrival (1969), Lucidities (1970), Relationships (1972), Extending the Territory (1985), and Familiar Spirits (1994). A translation, The Sonnets of Michelangelo (1961), was revised in 1969. She also published poetry for children. In 1992 Jennings was made a Commander of the British Empire.

ELIZABETH JENNINGS

II.FATHER TO SON -Elizabeth Jennings

The poem ‘Father to son’ is a sad plea of a father to his son. The father is filled with sadness at the growing distance between him and his son. He wants to make amends for all the mistakes that he has made.Elizabeth Jennings highlights the universal problem of generation gap through the words of a father. They think and live differently. They have become strangers to each other. In spite of an urge for reunion, the separation continues and can’t be helped.

III. Stanza wise Explanation of the poem

I do not understand this childThough we have lived together nowIn the same house for years. I knowNothing of him, so try to buildUp a relationship from howHe was when small.

The father says, that he doesn’t understand his child though they have lived in the same house together for years. He knows nothing about his child. So, the father tries to build up a relationship with his son from the early years.The father wants to begin from scratch again.The gap between the father and son is highlighted by the words ‘this child’. The father doesn’t even name his Son.

Yet have I killed The seed I spent or sown it whereThe land is his and none of mine? We speak like strangers, there's no signOf understanding in the air. This child is built to my designYet what he loves I cannot share.

The father wonders if he has killed the seed which is his or has sown it where the land belongs to the son and not the father. It means that the father wonders if it all is his mistake or somehow he tried to take his son on a path which the son never wanted to pursue. Maybe the son was forced to and thus he stopped listening to his father.Both –of them talk like total strangers and there are no signs of understanding between them. The bond between father and son is a very strong bond traditionally, but in this case the father says that his son resembles him, yet what the son likes, the father dislikes. The father cannot share the loves of his son.

Silence surrounds us. I would haveHim prodigal, returning toHis father's house, the home he knew, Rather than see him make and moveHis world. I would forgive him too, Shaping from sorrow a new love.There is no dialogue between the father and the son.

Silence surrounds them. The father now becomes somewhat selfish. He wishes that his son would be prodigal and then will return to his father’s house, the house he always knew. It means that the father wants his son to give respect to his father’s wishes. This would be a much better scenario than to see his control his world.Now, the tone of the father gets a bit arrogant. He wants the son to ask for forgiveness and the father would forgive him too. So that, a new understanding could be developed from sadness.In this stanza, the father seems to be angry with his son. He displays a self-centered wish to have control over his son.

Father and son, we both must liveOn the same globe and the same land. He speaks: I cannot understandMyself, why anger grows from grief. We each put out an empty hand, Longing for something to forgive.

Both the father and son must live on the same globe and the same land. It means that they must have same thinking and the same level of understanding for each other’s thoughts and wishes. The son says that he cannot understand what the father wants and the father says that he is unable to understand why his anger grows from grief. The father here is frustrated.Still, they both want to reconcile. They put out an empty hand for friendship. They both long for something to forgive. But their hands are empty as they fail to reignite the father-son bond.

IV. Solutions to Textbook Questions

1.Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?

Answer: The poem does talk of an exclusively personal experience. However, we can also call it fairly universal because a conflict like this is quite common in many households. It is also known as generation gap.

2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?Answer: The helplessness of the father is highlighted through the depiction of the emotional struggle that he undergoes. He is aware of the problem and is willing to resolve it, but is unable to do so. He regrets the lack of a strong emotional bond and proper communication with his son who is also physically distanced from him.

3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.Answer: Phrases/lines that indicate distance between the father and the son are:1. ‘I do not understand this child’2. ‘I know / Nothing of him’3. ‘We speak like strangers’4. ‘there’s no sign/ Of understanding in the air’5.

‘Silence surrounds us.’

4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?Answer: No, the poem does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme.

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