FATHER TO SON

                                                                              -ELIZABETH JENNINGS

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Prepared By,

A K Vimala Kumari

PGT English,JNV Yanam

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                   GAP ?

Generation Gap

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   Generation gap is  a situation in which older and younger people do  not understand each other because of their different experiences     opinions, ideologies,  habits and behaviour.

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������ELIZABETH JENNINGS�(1926-2001)�Elizabeth Jennings is one of the most significant poets of the 20th Century. She was born in Lincolnshire on July 18th,1926.She lived most of her lives in Oxford. Her works intensely relates personal matters in traditional and objective style.���                                                   

The prolific writer's consistent devotion to poetry yielded over 20 books during her life. The poetic genius died in 2001 ,October 26  in a care home at the age of 74.

                         POEM

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 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.��

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.�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.

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Stanza I

• The poet shares his feelings regarding his relationship with his son. He doesn't understand or know anything about his son in spite of living together for many years. He is trying to continue a relationship like how when he was small.

Stanza II

• In this stanza father acknowledges his role in the communication gap between his child and himself.  He has taken all effort to bring him up as he wished. But his son has got his own mental plane.  His son was in a place that he could not access.

Stanza III

• There is silence between the father and the son. The father very badly wishes that like Prodigal son his son also comes back to his house after realising his mistakes.
• Prodigal son is a character from New Testaments Parables of Jesus.  in the story a father has got two sons traditionally the eldest is the heir to the family property.  But here the younger demanded his inheritance, leaves home, spends his fortune foolishly and returns to  his father's house empty handed.

Stanza IV

• The son speaks for the first time in the stanza. He was also found to be sad about the gap arose between them. He does not understand himself. Both are ready to forgive each other .  As a gesture of that they put out an empty hand . But neither places his in the other's hand.

Poetic Devices 

1. Antithesis: It is device in which two contrasting or opposing ideas are put together

E.g.   a. The land is his and none of mine  b. shaping from sorrow a new love.

2. Alliteration: it is the repetition of the same consonant sounds or same letters at the beginning or most of the words in a sentence.

a. Silence surrounds us . 

b. The seed I spent or sown

c. The home he knew

Poetic Devices

3. Metaphor: It is implicit comparison made between two unlike thingsn that actually have something in common

Eg: The land is his and none of mine. (The words 'seed', 'sown', and 'land' are metaphors for the father's efforts that he made to build loving relationship with his son, and the son's heart respectively)

4. Simile: We speak like strangers' the poetic device used is 'simile'.

Textual Questions

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?
3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.

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Additional Questions

1. Why does the father say that he knows nothing of him?
2. What kind of relationship does he want to build up?
3. What does the word  'seed' signify?
4. What does the speaker mean by the land?
5. What would the father do to shape a new love from sorrow?

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                    FATHER AND SON 

                                                                                                                 BY ,

                                                                                  CAT STEVENS

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             THANK YOU