NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 5 Father to Son

Father to Son NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 5

Father to Son NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

Father to Son About the poet

Elizabeth Jennings (18 July 1926 – 26 October 2001) was an English poet. Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. She later attended St Anne’s College at Oxford. After graduation, she became a writer. Jennings’ early poetry was published in journals such as Oxford Poetry, New English Weekly, The Spectator, Outposts:and Poetry Review. Jennings is known for her lyric poetry and mastery of form. Her work displays a simplicity of metre and rhyme.

Father to Son Main Theme

This poem expresses a father’s anguish at the relationship of silence that exists between him and his son. He feels he does not know his child. He and his son are like strangers who do not understand each other.He wants his son to come back rather than move into a world of his own. He finds his grief turning to anger. Though both wish to improve the relationship by forgiving each other, they achieve nothing.

Father to Son Think it out

Question 1.
Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?
Answer:
The experience is personal but not exclusive. It is fairly universal. A situation like this is called ‘the generation gap’.

Question 2.
How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
Answer:
The father’s helplessness is brought out in the poem by repeating his problem of not understanding his son several times.

Question 3.
Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.
Answer:
I do not understand this child
We speak like strangers, there is no sign
understanding in the air.
…. Yet what he loves I cannot share.
Silence surrounds us.

Question 4.
Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Answer:
No. The poem does not have a consistent rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas have ‘abb aba’ but the third and the fourth do not follow this.