Here you get Father-to-Son Question Answers from the Class 11 AHSEC Assam Board and a Summary along with the Previous Year's paper Solutions and important-Extra Notes of 1st years. The poem is written by Elizabeth Jennings.
Summary
The poem explores the complex relationship between a father and his son. Despite living together for years, the father feels a deep sense of disconnect and a lack of understanding toward his child. He tries to bridge this gap by reflecting on their early years together, hoping to rebuild their relationship. However, he questions whether he has failed to take care of their bond or if he has planted the seeds of their relationship in a place that is unfamiliar to him.
The father and son communicate as strangers, with a noticeable absence of understanding between them. The father longs for his son to return to the familiarity of their shared home, rather than witnessing him create a new life elsewhere. He also desires to forgive his son and rebuild their connection, finding solace and love amidst their sorrows.
Both father and son are living on the same planet, sharing the same world, but they struggle to understand each other's emotions and experiences. The son speaks, expressing his own confusion about his actions and how his grief turns into anger. Both father and son reach out to one another with empty hands, hoping to find something to forgive and ultimately seeking reconciliation.
Textual Question Answers
Think it out
Ans: The poem is a description of a father's sadness over the emotional separation from his son. When the son was a little child the father spent all his love, care, and energy on the son and wished that he would grow up into a man and understand his father. But after growing up the son turned into a person totally different from his father with differences in opinions, ideas, and choices of love. Both of them became almost strangers to each other and this hurts the father. The poem describes the personal experience of a father, but this pain is fairly universal to all parents as we see many children who hardly care for the feelings, emotions and loneliness of their parents in the old age
2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem? (2013, 17)
Ans: The father's helplessness is brought out through the expression of his inability to understand his child despite living together for years. He tries really hard to connect with his son and build a relationship, but they don't seem to talk much and there is a big gap between them. They don't share many common interests, and this makes it difficult for the father to relate to his child. The father wishes that his son would come back to their old home, where things were familiar and comfortable for both of them. He really wants to forgive his son and make things right between them, but he feels helpless because he doesn't know how to bridge the gap that has grown between them.
3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate the distance between father and son.
Ans: The following phrases and lines indicate the distance between the father and son in the poem:
- "I know Nothing of him"
- "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 cannot understand Myself, why anger grows from grief"
- "We each put out an empty hand, Longing for something to forgive"
These lines highlight the lack of knowledge, communication, understanding, and shared interests between the father and son, emphasizing the emotional distance that exists between them.
4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Ans: The poem does not have a consistent rhyme scheme. It follows a free verse form, meaning it does not follow a specific pattern of rhyming. The focus is more on the expression of emotions and the exploration of the father-son relationship rather than strict adherence to a structured rhyme scheme.
Previous Years Paper Solution
1. What is the father's greatest wish for his son? (2015)
Ans: The father's greatest wish for his son is for him to return to his father's house, the home he knew, rather than forging his own path and creating his own world. The father also expresses a desire to forgive his son and shape a new love out of sorrow.
2. 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. (2016)
(i) Why does the father say that silence surrounds them?
Ans: The father says that silence surrounds them to convey the lack of communication and understanding between him and his son.
(iii) What can be shaped out of sorrow?
Ans: The speaker implies that something meaningful can be shaped out of sorrow, possibly referring to a new understanding or connection between father and son.
(iv) Find a word in the passage that means "Extravagant".
Ans: The word "prodigal" means extravagant in this context.
(v) What idea do you form about the relationship between the father and son from the quoted lines?
Ans: The quoted lines suggest a strained and distant relationship between the father and son, with the father longing for his son's return and the son seemingly detached and focused on creating his own world.
3. 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. (2017)
(i) Where do these lines occur?
Ans: These lines occur in the poem "Father to Son."
(ii) Why does the speaker say that he does not know this child'?
Ans: The speaker says he does not know this child because despite living together for years, he feels a lack of understanding and connection with his son.
(iii) For how long have the father and son lived together?
Ans: For many years.
(iv) What does the speaker try to build?
Ans: The speaker tries to build a new relationship.
(v) What idea do you form about the relationship between the father and son from the quoted lines?
Ans: The quoted lines suggest a strained and distant relationship between the father and his son. They live together on the same land, but there is a lack of understanding and communication between them. The father feels anger and the son expresses confusion about himself. Both of them are reaching out with empty hands, desiring forgiveness and seeking something to reconcile. The lines depict a sense of emotional disconnect and a shared longing for a deeper connection and understanding.
4. How is the father's helplessness brought out in the poem, Father to Son? (2017)
Ans: See Above Qno. 2 (Textual Question Answers)
5. Father and son, we both must live
On the same globe and on 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. (2018)
(i) Where must father and son live together?
Ans: Father and son must live together on the same globe and in the same land.
(ii) What is the source of the father's anger?
Ans: Father's helplessness and loneliness are the sources of his anger.
(iii) What does the empty hand signify?
Ans: In the context of the poem, the empty hand symbolizes a desire for connection, understanding, and forgiveness. Both the father and the son reach out with empty hands, hoping to find something to forgive or be forgiven for. It represents their longing for reconciliation and a resolution to their strained relationship. The empty hand signifies their vulnerability, openness, and willingness to mend their bond.
(iv) What do they long for?
Ans: They long to forgive the son for all the unhappiness given to him and from the same sorrow he wishes to build up a bond of life with his son.
(v) What idea do you form about the relationship between the father and his son from the quoted lines?
Ans: The quoted lines suggest a strained and distant relationship between the father and his son. They live together on the same land, but there is a lack of understanding and communication between them. The father feels anger and the son expresses confusion about himself. Both of them are reaching out with empty hands, desiring forgiveness and seeking something to reconcile. The lines depict a sense of emotional disconnect and a shared longing for a deeper connection and understanding.
6. Does the poem father to son talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal? Give a reasoned reply. (2018)
Ans: See Above Qno. 1 (Textual Question Answers)
7. 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. (2020)
(i) Who are the 'us' here?
Ans: In this stanza, the "us" refers to the father and the son.
(ii) What surrounds them?
Ans: The silence mentioned in the stanza surrounds the father and the son. It symbolizes the lack of communication and understanding between them, emphasizing their emotional distance.
(iii) What is the meaning of prodigal'?
Ans: The word "prodigal" here refers to the son's potential act of leaving his father's house, exploring the world on his own, and perhaps making choices that may seem reckless or unconventional to the father.
(iv) Who is supposed to return to his father's house, after being prodigal?
Ans: The speaker, the father, expresses his preference for his son to return to his father's house after being prodigal. The father longs for his son to come back to the familiar and secure environment of their home, where he can be close to him again.
(v) In what context, is the speaker talking about forgiveness and new love?
Ans: The speaker contemplates forgiveness and new love in the context of his relationship with his son. Despite feeling a sense of loss and misunderstanding, the father expresses his willingness to forgive his son for any perceived transgressions or differences. He desires to shape a new love between them, one born out of their shared sorrow and the process of healing and reconciliation. The father recognizes that forgiveness and the cultivation of a renewed bond are essential for their relationship to grow and evolve.
8. Why is the father unhappy in the poem 'Father to Son'? (2020, 22)
Ans: The father in the poem "Father to Son" is unhappy because he feels a deep sense of disconnect and lack of understanding with his son. Despite living together for years, the father admits that he knows nothing about his child and struggles to build a meaningful relationship with him. This lack of understanding and the distance between them makes the father unhappy, as he longs for a closer bond and a shared connection with his son.
