Poetry, just like other literatures plays an imperative role in the development of several aspects of life. It uses components essential for human development such as articulate vocabulary, reasoning skills, and spiritual and moral development among others. This study reflects on the nature of love in the family in poems: A Father to His Son by Carl Sandburg, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, and The Ballad of the Harp Weaver by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The common idea is that being part of a family requires a relationship based on love. In the poem A Father to his Son by Carl Sandburg, a father advises his son, leading him through a set of guidelines and values to assist him untie the knot of inextricable uncertainties, problems, pain, and complexities of life.
The poem ‘Nettles’ by Scannel explores the ways in which a parent is protective towards their child and doesn’t want to see them get hurt so they will do anything in their power to protect them, however they cannot always be protected and soon they will be hurt. The poem ‘Born yesterday’ by Amis explores the ways in which the speaker is wishing an unborn baby girl the best in life and how he doesn’t expect her to be perfect, and she ‘may be ordinary’. These two poems go well together because they are both based on a realistic view on life, they both show the way people will shield their loved ones from the unseen pain and unhappiness of the unknown future. The line “My son would often feel sharp wounds again” from ‘Nettles’ shows that no matter how much a parent tries to protect their child they will get hurt. This is also portrayed in ‘Born yesterday’ when it says “tightly-folded bud” this indicates that although the child may be young and unable to defend for herself her loved ones will try and protect her, however soon they won’t be there to protect her and she will be left to defend for herself.
The poem ‘Nettles’ by Scannel explores the ways in which a parent is protective towards their child and doesn’t want to see them get hurt so they will do anything in their power to protect them, however they cannot always be protected and soon they will be hurt. The poem ‘Born yesterday’ by Amis explores the ways in which the speaker is wishing an unborn baby girl the best in life and how he doesn’t expect her to be perfect, and she ‘may be ordinary’. These two poems go well together because they are both based on a realistic view on life, they both show the way people will shield their loved ones from the unseen pain and unhappiness of the unknown future. The line “My son would often feel sharp wounds again” from ‘Nettles’ shows that no matter how much a parent tries to protect their child they will get hurt. This is also portrayed in ‘Born yesterday’ when it says “tightly-folded bud” this indicates that although the child may be young and unable to defend for herself her loved ones will try and protect her, however soon they won’t be there to protect her and she will be left to defend for herself.
Luke doesn’t know that no one will find out about what happened. He is acting in the present and disregarding the future. How will his daughter be affected by the decision he made? She will always have the death of that young man on her conscience. Luke is a Christian man, but does he care about what God will do to him?
She describes that this new relationship was different than before; she feels that now they are closer than ever before. Aleshire points this out in the last stanza “I answer that I love him, too, but hardly knowing him, what I love is the way reserve has slipped from his feeling” (pg. 90) to describe that her father was a doctor and barely had enough time to spend with his daughter. Throughout the poem, Joan shows a message to the audience the love for her father. In Joan Aleshire’s poem, the theme she is portraying is her love for her father and that death is a toll that we all have to take.
During Nettles the writer tells us that ‘the boy came seeking comfort’, this shows that the child feels as if he needs to go to his father to feel better and the father feels that it his responsibility to make sure that the boy feels safe and protected, however in The Habit if Light there is no signs that the mother is looking after the children or the children are going to her to seek comfort and better health, this could tell us that she is an independent women that doesn’t need other people around bothering her. Mid-way through the Nettles poem there is a change in the way the story is told, the father starts to get an anger for the ‘green spears’ that caused his son pain, ‘And then I took my billhook, honed the blade And went outside and slashed in fury with it’, this symbolises that the father is trying to defend his child and stop him from being hurt again however in The Habit if Light the poem only seems to get better as the things said about the mother are all positive, it is like all the writer wants to do is show how good the mother is and that she wouldn’t hurt anyone. Overall both poems show
Country Lovers: Let us begin with the short story by Nadine Gordimer, entitled Country Lovers. Njabulo, the husband of Thebedi, the protagonist, is the obvious provider in this relationship—the one who wears the pants. Although his wife ends up pregnant with another man’s child, Njabulo steps up and does what is right, taking care of his wife and the child, as if he were his own. Njabulo really works hard to provide for the child. He hides the situation and covers for his wife when he shouldn’t be required to.
In the beginning of the story, Brother recounts the day Doodle was born, saying that he was a disappointment as soon as he entered the world. The narrator was not satisfied with his brother, which resulted in the horrible things he thought about him. Brother said that “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable…” As a result, the narrator enjoyed torturing Doodle, threatening to abandon him multiple times. He even took Doodle to see the casket that was built for him, and forced him to touch it. The narrator basked in the control he had over his brother.
“..Father’s silence was infinitely more menacing than a flood of threatening speech. That night the old man did not eat,” (pg.260) Pain was obviously felt by the father even though he did not show it because of his pride. The father also experienced pain when his son sent him a letter explaining that his grandchildren want to see him. “That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them.” (pg.262) Besides fear, he also has pain because a thunderstorm is coming in the small village and he starts picturing his grandchildren and he says to himself he
Okonkwo was scared of people thinking he was just like his father so he worked hard since he was a child. This made him hate everything his father was made of, which is weakness and being lazy. ”Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness”. (13). when Okonkwo father died he had been in a lot of debt, Okonkwo became obsessed with the idea of manliness in order to get over his father weakness.