Class 11 commerce students can refer to Poem 5 A Father to Son notes given below which is an important Poem in the class 11 English book. These notes and important questions and answers have been prepared based on the latest CBSE and NCERT syllabus and books issued for the current academic year. Our team of English teachers has prepared these notes for class 11 English for the benefit of students so that you can read these revision notes and understand each topic carefully.

A Father to Son Notes Class 11 English

Refer to the notes and important questions given below for A Father to Son which is really useful and has been recommended by Class 11 English teachers. Understanding the concepts in detail and then solving questions by yourself will help you to learn all topics given in your NCERT Books.

THEME:

The poem is based on the concept of Generation Gap between parents and their children. The father has his own set of beliefs and ideas while the son has turned into a mature individual who wants to live life on his own terms. Both are unable to compromise or reconcile with each other.

MAIN POINTS:

• The father is unhappy because there is lack of understanding between them owing to communication gap.

• He is surprised at the fact that he knows nothing about his son though he has lived with him since birth.

• He tries to assess the cause of their differences and refers to the past times to know at what point this gap cropped up. He longs to rebuild their relationship from that point.

• The father thinks that his son is like a seed which he had sown on the land which was not his.

• Now that the plant (son) has grown up, there is no sign of understanding between them.

• The son has grown up just as the father had planned. Yet the father cannot share what the child loves.

• Father is unhappy that his son is trying to carve his own life, creating a world of his own.

• Father thinks that he would forgive his son for his mistakes if would come back just like the prodigal son in the Bible.

• The father and son have no option but to live in the same world at the same time.

• Both want that the other should take initiative to solve the differences so that they can forgive his mistakes.

POETIC DEVICES:

1. ALLITERATION: “Silence surrounds us”

2. ALLUSION: reference to “prodigal” son story of the Bible.

3. METAPHOR: “The seed I spent…”-seed refers to the son.

4. PERSONIFICATION: “Anger grows from grief”

(i) I do not know this child.
Though we have lived together now
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.

Question. Whom does “we” refer to in these lines?
Ans. “we” refers to the father and the son.

Question. Which poetic device has been used in the line “the seed I spent”?
And. Metaphor: “seed” refers to the son.

Question. Explain the line “yet have I killed the seed…”
Ans. The father seems to be repenting his way of upbringing the son which might have gradually led to the present scenario.

Question. What does the speaker mean by saying “the land is his and none of mine”?
Ans. The father laments the fact the son has grown up into an individual who asserts his independence.

Question. Why have the two person become “strangers”?
Ans. Father and son have become strangers due to lack of understanding and communication between them.

Question. Explain the line “this child is built to my design”.
Ans. The son is his father’s own flesh and blood and resembles him in physical attributes. Yet, they don’t share the same interests.

Question. What does the speaker mean by saying “what he loves I cannot share”?
Ans. The father and son have different interests and opinions. The father is unable to cope with son’s preferences due to generation gap and vice versa.

Question. Identify the poetic device in the line ‘we speak like stranegrs”
Ans. Simile

(ii) silence surrounds us. I would have him prodigal, returning to his father’s house,
the home he knew, 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.

Question. What does the speaker mean by saying “what he loves I cannot share”?
Ans. The father and son have different interests and opinions. The father is unable to cope with son’s preferences due to generation gap and vice versa.

Question. Whom does “we” refer to in these lines?
Ans. “we” refers to the father and the son.

Question. Identify the poetic device in the line ‘we speak like stranegrs”
Ans. Simile

Question. What does the speaker mean by saying “the land is his and none of mine”?
Ans. The father laments the fact the son has grown up into an individual who asserts his independence.

Question. Explain the line “this child is built to my design”.
Ans. The son is his father’s own flesh and blood and resembles him in physical attributes. Yet, they don’t share the same interests.

Question. Which poetic device has been used in the line “the seed I spent”?
And. Metaphor: “seed” refers to the son.

Question. Why have the two person become “strangers”?
Ans. Father and son have become strangers due to lack of understanding and communication between them.

Question. Explain the line “yet have I killed the seed…”
Ans. The father seems to be repenting his way of upbringing the son which might have gradually led to the present scenario.

(iii) 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

Question. Describe the father’s state of mind in the line “rather than see him make and move his world”.
Ans. The father is expresses longing for his son. He doesn’t want him to build another house.

Question. Which poetic device has been used in the first line?
Ans. Alliteration: “silence surrounds us”.
Meaning: There is lack of communication between the father and son. They have nothing to share with each other.

Question. What would the father do in order to mend their relationship?
Ans. The father seems to be longing for reconciliation with his son. He wants to forgive his mistakes and accept his individuality.

Question. What does the speaker mean by “I would have him prodigal”?
Ans. The father is referring to the story of the prodigal son in the Bible. In that story the father accepts his son with all his mistakes. The speaker here also wants to arrive at a compromise with his son by accepting him with his follies.

(iv) 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.

Question. What, according to you, should the father and son do in order to resolve the crisis in their relationship?
Ans. The father and son should try to assess the cause of their differences. They should forgive each other and try to move on.

Question. Why does the speaker say “I cannot understand why…”?
Ans. The speaker is in a state of doubt. He is unable to understand and resolve the cause of strangeness between him and the son.

Question. Identify the poetic device in the fourth line.
Ans. Personification: “anger grows from grief”.

Question. Explain “we each put out an empty hand”.
Ans. The poet intends to say that both the father and son half-heartedly attempt to resolve their differences.

Question. Describe “anger grows from grief”
Ans. The father intends to say that differences of opinion with the son lead him into sadness. Further, this sadness becomes the cause of his anger which leads to spat between them.

Question. What does the father seem to long for in the last line?
Ans. The father longs that both of them should forgive each other’s mistakes.

Question. What must the two persons in the text do?
Ans. The father and the son must live together in the same house because they are a family.