What went wrong when the king rode under the arch?

It was too low and knocked off his crown

How does the chain of blame unfold in the poem?

Each accused person blames another, ending with the king's own changes

Who is the poet of "Father to Son" and whose voice speaks in it?

Elizabeth Jennings; the poem is spoken in the voice of the father.

Does the poem describe a purely personal experience or a universal one?

Though personal, it expresses the fairly universal experience of the gulf between generations.

What is the father's chief complaint about his son?

That although they have lived together for years, he knows nothing of him and they speak like strangers.

How is the father's helplessness brought out in the poem?

Through his confession that he cannot understand or reach his son and can only recall how the boy was when small.

What does the father mean by asking whether he "killed the seed" he spent?

He wonders whether he has failed as a parent, or merely raised a son whose life is now wholly his own.

Which lines indicate the distance between father and son?

"We speak like strangers," "Silence surrounds us," and "there's no sign of understanding in the air."

What would the father do if his son returned?

Forgive him and shape "a new love" out of his sorrow.

What is meant by "We each put out an empty hand, / Longing for something to forgive"?

Both father and son reach out yearning for reconciliation, yet remain unable to bridge the gap.

Why does "anger grow from grief" in the father?

His sorrow at the estrangement turns into helpless anger because he cannot understand or repair the rift.

Father to Son

Q: What does the father wish his son would do?

Return like the prodigal to his father's house and the home he knew, rather than make his own separate world.

Class 11 English · Hornbill – Poems · Chapter 5

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The story in short

Elizabeth Jennings's poem voices the pain of a father who cannot understand or communicate with his grown son despite having lived together for years. The father confesses that, though they have shared the same house, he knows nothing of his son and can only try to build a relationship by remembering how the boy was when small. He questions whether he has "killed the seed" he spent or merely sown it in land that is the son's and none of his — they now speak "like strangers," with no sign of understanding between them. The father admits that, although the child was built to his own design, he cannot share what his son loves. Silence surrounds the two of them. The father wishes the son were like the prodigal who returns to his father's house and the home he knew, rather than going off to make his own separate world, and he would willingly forgive him and shape a new love out of sorrow. In the final stanza, both father and son live on the same earth yet remain unable to understand each other, and the father cannot grasp why anger grows out of his grief. The poem ends with father and son each putting out "an empty hand," longing for something to forgive — a moving image of the universal gulf and yearning between generations.

Father to Son

Characters & key ideas

Generation gapthe lack of understanding between father and son the poem laments.

Prodigalthe son who leaves home; the father wishes his son would return like the prodigal.

Estrangementthe emotional distance that makes them "speak like strangers."

Silencethe absence of communication that "surrounds" father and son.

Empty handthe closing image of both reaching out, longing for reconciliation.

Universal experiencethe gulf between generations that the poem presents as common to all.

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Who wrote the poem "Father to Son"?

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Father to Son

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