Question

1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?
2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?

Answer 1

Ans 1: The poem ‘Father to Son’ talks about a fairly universal experience. When a child is growing up, the father is usually busy with his work and is not able to take out time for his child. When the father grows older and has free time, his son gets involved in his life and has no time for his old father. This cycle is universal.

Ans 2: The father’s helplessness is brought out in the poem by these lines: ‘I do not understand this child, Though we have lived together now, In the same house for years.’ ‘He speaks: I cannot understand Myself, why anger grows from grief.’ ‘Yet what he loves I cannot share’ and ‘I know Nothing of him’.  These lines indicate how he wanted to make a relationship with his son better and now as his son was like a stranger to him, they both put out an empty hand to each other and remain in vain.

Answer 2

Answer:

the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem