NCERT Class 11th Poem: Father to Son by Elizabeth Jennings - Summary

This poem by Elizabeth Jennings is about a father and son's relationship, how a generation gap can sometimes create a rift between two close people. 

The narrator, a father, is perplexed about his own child. He raised him, but now it seems to the narrator that he doesn't know him, even after living together for so many years in the same house. They are practically living like strangers under the same roof. The narrator couldn't understand him. It seems that the child has changed a lot since he was a little boy.

The father fears whether it is he who is responsible for the fracturing of ties, as he might not have nurtured the right values in his son. Or he wonders whether he has been an authoritarian father and interfered in his son's life, who is no longer a child. 

He questions his own place in his son's life. There is no warmth left in their communication, and they talk like strangers. There is a lack of understanding between them, which further signifies their acrimonious relationship. It is absurd for the narrator that his son inherited his genes, yet their interests don't match/ resonate at all.

Nothing but silence prevails between them. The father would rather see his son coming back to him like the biblical prodigal son, than to go out and build his own world. He would forgive him if he returned to him, foregoing all his deeds.

Now the narrator speaks to the son and expounds him that both father and son must live together on the same land. The son responds that he is unable to understand himself. It seems that he is dealing with identity crisis. His sadness has transformed into anger. Both the father and son want to reconcile and forgive, but are unable to do so as the chasm between them is too deep.

Alternate Interpretation

This poem can be considered to have an Unreliable Narrator,
as if we dig deep into the meaning of the narrator's words, then we will find him to be an authoritarian father, who is not willing to let his son live a free life that he desires. Moreover, the father's disappointment could be the reason behind the son's identity crisis and gloom. 

As the father admitted that he doesn't want his son to stay away from him, he is against his son's exploring the world. So, from son's point of view, his father is too controlling about his son's life choices. Being a grown-up, he wishes to live life on his own terms. He has the wanderlust to trot the globe. But he is being shackled by his father's view.