Having negative feelings towards a family member is often difficult to handle. An individual may disagree with the actions of a family member; however, they are still related. This struggle is shown in the poem My Father by James Berry. The speaker of the poem deals with his feelings of resentment towards his father. Berry utilizes a list-like structure, contrasting ideas as well as imagery to portray the speaker/son’s negative feelings towards his father. Throughout the poem, the speaker responds to the actions of his father by outlining his feelings. A consistent structure, with the exception of stanza three, is found within the poem. The speaker almost seems to be creating a cause and effect list. Berry’s choice to begin every stanza
The father is consistent in carrying out actions that the son does not agree with; resulting in feelings such as “rage” or “deadfaced.” The word “for” also distinguishes between the cause and effect of each point. Each stanza begins with “for,” which is immediately followed by an action of the father; this can be seen as the “cause.” The “effect” is then shown every time the speaker states that “he [the father] made…”Additionally, the effect expresses the sons reactions or feelings. For example in the fourth stanza, “for expecting my mother to make money like food… he made us go deadfaced.” The father expecting so much of the mother results in the children all “go[ing] deadfaced.” This list-like quality is reinforced by the lack of punctuation in the poem.
In James Berry’s poem there are also many strong contrasts that help the readers to have a better understanding of the father’s character. Early on, the speaker first describes his father as “so black so muscular so well curved.” This image of a man has implications that he has a physically draining occupation that requires a large amount of time outdoors. In the initial reading of this description, one may believe that the son is praising the father. However, Berry immediately contrasts by describing the father as “a groomed showman too fit everyday for barefoot.” This statement turns the whole idea around and paints a picture of a man with too much pride to even walk barefoot. This changes the tone of the initial description to mocking and sardonic. This contrast between a hands-on, physical man and an arrogant “show man,” is further emphasized in stanza three. Rather than working outside in the fields, the father is “sat all day in the tall grass sweet-talking weak jaws.” The father’s lack of activity is again contrasted with the mother trying to “make money like food and clothes and be the sum of every question.” These contrasts highlight the arrogance and pride of the father in the son’s eyes. The speaker shows how he despises his father for having these qualities and also expresses sympathy towards his mother. Additionally, there is a contrast between the man that the father appears to be in society
The speaker’s personal emotions emphasizes the poem’s theme since although his father is no longer with him in this world, the memory of his father will always live in his heart. Throughout the poem, Lee uses the sky, underground, and the heart to symbolize imagination, reality, and memory—emphasizing the poem’s theme of the remembrance of a loved one. Lee also uses repetition to convey the meaning of Little Father. The speaker repeatedly mentions “I buried my father…Since then…” This repetition displays the similarity in concepts, however the contrast in ideas. The first stanza focuses on the spiritual location of the speaker’s father, the second stanza focuses on the physical location of the father, and the third stanza focuses on the mental location of the speaker’s father. This allows the reader to understand and identify the shift in ideas between each stanza, and to connect these different ideas together—leading to the message of despite where the loved one is (spiritually or physically), they’ll always be in your heart. The usage of word choice also enables the reader to read in first person—the voice of the speaker. Reading in the voice of the speaker allows the reader to see in the perspective of the speaker and to connect with the speaker—understand
The use of anaphora is prominent in the poem as each stanza is initiated with the same or similar phrase. The second through eighth stanza begin with the words, “I see them,” this is to show the speaker’s sympathy for the slaves and the horrible lives they were given. He feels as if he is his great-grandfather and is responsible for the abhorrent crimes he committed. Berry then changes the phrasing to, “I know” signifying that he empathizes with the slaves, finally saying, “I am” showing that he feels similar to a slave. This anaphora shows the struggle of being a descendant of an evil person, the speaker’s inner demons make his life full of shame and guilt for the actions of his ancestors.
As mentioned, the parents’ pains, negative emotions and hatred are presented in the first part. Even from the first few lines from the poem: “Ulcerated tooth keeps me...
Stanza three again shows doubtfulness about the mother’s love. We see how the mother locks her child in because she fears the modern world. She sees the world as dangers and especially fears men. Her fear of men is emphasized by the italics used. In the final line of the stanza, the mother puts her son on a plastic pot. This is somewhat symbolic of the consumeristic society i.e. manufactured and cheap.
Indeed, the satirical tone of this poem suggests that the speaker is somewhat critical of his father. The whiskey smell, the roughness, the inconsiderate and reckless actions are under scrutiny. The mother's frowning countenance suggests she too is rather unhappy with the scene. However, the winning tone of the poem is the light and comical one.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The lack of verbal communication between his father and himself can be seen in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." The overall impression of the poem is that love can be communicated in other ways than through words; it can be communicated through everyday, mundane actions. For example, in the poem, the father awakens on "Sundays too" to warm the house with a fire and polish his sons shoes. There is a sense of coldness in the beginning of the poem through the lines:
In the poem ¨My Father¨ by Scott Hightower, the author describes a rather unstable relationship with his now deceased father. Scott describes his father as a mix of both amazing and atrocious traits. The father is described as someone who constantly contradicts himself through his actions. He is never in between but either loving and heroic or cold and passive. The relationship between Scott and his father is shown to be always changing depending on the father’s mood towards him. He sees his father as the reason he now does certain things he finds bad. But at the end of it all, he owes a great deal to his father. Scott expresses that despite his flaws, his father helped shape the man he is today. Hightower uses certain diction, style, and imagery to
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
Hayden talks about the son looking back with regret for never thanking his father and points out that he spoke indifferently to him at the time. Some may say that the father is not a nurturing type of person and shows his love through his support of the household. In contrast, the father figure in Roethke’s poem comes in to the home boisterously dancing with his son. The father’s relationship with his son seems to be more physical and genuine. If there is one thing that is for certain about the two fathers it is that they both have an immense amount love their sons, but have very different character
Although the poet uses diction to express her feelings towards her father, she also uses descriptive images to visualize and describe the frequent routine in which she goes from harsh to peaceful. Throughout the poem Levi describes her father’s arranged actions as she wait almost impatiently for her father to call. “I can feel it coming. He’s been awake for hours. He checks his watch, pulls the phone on his lap like a recalcitrant child…” (5-7) Levi describes
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
The poet conveys his attitude toward the character in a detached manner, seeing as the poem is not written in the perspective of the character or someone close to him. The speaker details the actions of the character in a sympathetic, respectful tone, but the choice of actions that the poet chooses to include seem to mock him. Perhaps most representative of this assertion is the choice to make the first word of both the novel and the poem “Cabbage,” immediately indicating that the novel the character has waited years to write will likely not be of good quality (1). Additionally, the poet uses the simile “a trophy pen, / like a trophy wife,” describing the pen that would play such an integral role in writing the novel with a negative connotation (2-3). The repetition of the phrase “not cheap” suggests that the extensive amount of resources the character has invested in the creation of his novel may have simply been a waste. Additionally, the detail that the character “dreamed in free moments at his office” and “excitingly” began writing is undercut by the first word being “cabbage” (17-21). In the event that the first word was more mellow, the tone of the poet would be very similar to that of the speaker. However, the choices in detail as well as the use of specific literary devices keep the tone of the poet and the tone of the speaker on two different
Reading the poem over once, one can pick out a line, or even certain words in each stanza that indicate a new meaning. In line 3: “like death” indicates desperation and fear. In line line 7: “mother’s countenance” is a mature phrase, it's not language one would use to describe a mother’s playful disapproval of before-bedtime excitement. In the third stanza “battered” and “scraped” suggest violence and pain. In addition, they are both words with sharp and blunt sounds, phonetically placing a feeling of harshness within the text. Similarly, in the fourth stanza, “beat time on my head” and “still clinging to your shirt” creates the image and feeling of abuse, as if a father literally “beats,” but to avoid falling to the ground he must cling to his abuser.