NCERT Solutions For Class 11 English Hornbill Father to Son With full guidence:

                 FATHER TO SON

                                         By

     

                     ELIZABETH JENNINGS 

The poem is autobiographical in nature and describes the relationship between a father and his son.

About the poet:

ELIZABETH JENNINGS (1926-2001) was born in Boston. Lineolnshire but moved to Oxford at the age of six where she lived for the rest of her life. She studied at ST. Anne's College.Oxford and worked in advertising, at the city library and briefly in publishing before becoming a full time writer.

The poem

Let's look at the poem now

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.

Poetics device:

let's look at the poetics device use in this poem

a. Metaphor- "Yet have I killed , The seed I spent or down it where the land is his and none of mine?

In the above given lines 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.

b. Alliteration- In the lines " The seed I spent or sown it where', and 'silence surrounds us the poetic device used is alliteration.

c. Simile -  In expression"we speak like stranger's the poetics device used is simile" 

Now I m going to share the all the questions and answers of this chapter" Father to son" 

so, let's write down all the questions and answers on your note copy  so that you can Excell in board exam

         Questions and answers

1. Why does the narrator try to build up a relationship with his son from how he was when small?

Ans: The narrator tries to build up a relationship with his son when he was child. Perhaps, he means to imply that his son when he was a child he had some pure love and affection for him. But, when he grew up, he left his father for as alien land. The narrator cravers for his son’s affection of his childhood.

2. What do the farther and the son do to come near but what happen? How do you know?

Ans:  The father and the son understood each other intuitively to come closer physically. They long for something to forgive each other and for that they spread out their empty hands. But, they cannot forgive and cannot come closer. The grief now given place to anger as the father cannot get his son to leave with him.

            We came to know from the following lines-

                   “We each put out an empty hand,

                      Longing for something to forgive”.

.

3. Why do you think does the father yearn for his son?

Ans:  I think, the father is alone and aloof. His soul yearns for uniting with his own son and such a stage of life. It may be that the father has now understood the meaning of life with sweet relationship only among blood relations. Material things don’t count in it.

 4. What is the present relationship between the father and son?

Ans: The relationship between the father and son is like stranger. There is no understand between them. His son is like him in appearance. Yet his father cannot share what he loves. The silence surrounds both of them.

5.Explain “I cannot understand myself, why anger grows to grief”.

Ans : Here ,  the father says that his son speak but he cannot understand what he speaks. It is not what he wanted to hear from his son. He is full of sorrow at the absence of his son even at his own helplessness and despair. The grief now gives to anger as the father cannot get his son to live with him.

6.Why does the narrator say that he does not understand his son? Why does he tries to build the relation with him? 

Ans: The narrator says that because he feels that if he had understood his son, they could not have separated. They have together for years in the same house but not now.

    He is trying to build up a relation with him because it is a demand of time and human blood.

7.Does the poem talks of an exclusively person experiences or it is fairly universal

.

Ans : The poem’s theme is fairly universal. What the poem presence is that that agony of his father over his son’s alienation and what happen to the father and the son is the normal thing now-a-days. Every father wants his son to share the same roof, belief whereas every child dreams of an independent life. Human values are vanishing and generation gap is increasing under the impact of commercialization and effects of money.

8.How is the father helplessness brought out in the poem?

Ans : The father is broken in grief. He wants his son to be back to him. He wants to love his son the way he did when he was a kid. But time has changed and so does his son. Though they live under the same roof, yet they behave like a strangers. The father feels an emotional vacuum in his absence. He is ready to forgive if he comes back. But his wish remained only a wish.

9. do not understand this child

Though we have lived together

………………….yet have I killed.

a.Where have the father and the son lived for years?

Ans : The father and the son lived in the same house for years.

b.Why does the speaker not able to understand the child?

Ans: The speaker does not understand the child because there has occurred a 

generation which creates some obligations between them.

 c .Write The noun form of child?

Ans : The  noun form of child is children.

 10.The seed I spent or sown it where

The land is his and none of mine?

……………yet what he loves I cannot share.

a. What makes the father feel sad that the seed that was sown on the land was not his own?

Ans : The father is sad because he produces his son thinking him his own but the connection between them is no longer exists. He does not belong to his father and left for some other place.

b.Explain – “Land is his and none of mine”.

Ans : It means the place where the father has sown his seeds is not his own but his son’s place.

 11. Silence surrounds us. I would have

Him prodigal, returning to

……..shaping from sorrow a new live

.

a.Why does silence surrounds them?

Ans: Silence surrounds them because though they live in the same house yet there is no connection between them. There is no relation between them. It has been ages since they have not together.

b. What is the father’s deep desire?

Ans: The father’s deep desire is that his son should come back to him. He is ready to forgive him with all his recklessness.

c.Find the word in the passage- wasteful/ extravagant.

Ans : Wasteful/ extravagant -  Prodigal 

 12. Father to son, we both must live

  On the globe and the same land

……………longing for something to forgive. 

a.Why does the father say that they must live on the same land?

Ans : the father has understood the true meaning of life. He is over-whelmed with a sense of grief at his loneliness. So, he wants that they must live on the same land.

b.Explain – “Why anger grows from grief”. 

Ans : The father has now realised that the true happiness of life can be enjoyed only among blood relation. But, his son does not understood this, he feels an emotional vacuum in his absence. The grief now gives place to anger as he cannot get his son to live with him..

 c.Who is the poet of the poem?

Ans : The poet of the poem is ‘Father to son'is Elizabeth Joan Jenning.

Conclusion- I hope you will be understood this article and write down the notes on your copy 👍.

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