2. Generation Gap
Generation gap is a situation
in which older and younger
people do not understand
each other because of their
different
experiences opinions,
ideologies, habits and
behaviour.
3. ELIZABETH JENNINGS
(1926-2001)
Elizabeth Jennings is one of
the most significant poets
of the 20th Century. She
was born in Lincolnshire on
July 18th,1926.She lived
most of her lives in Oxford.
Her works intensely relates
personal matters in
traditional and objective
style.
4. The prolific writer's
consistent devotion to
poetry yielded over 20
books during her life.
The poetic genius died
in 2001 ,October 26 in
a care home at the
age of 74.
5. POEM
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. Yet have I killed
The seed I spent or sown it where
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.
6. 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.
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.
7. Stanza I
• The poet shares his feelings
regarding his relationship
with his son. He doesn't
understand or know
anything about his son in
spite of living together for
many years. He is trying to
continue a relationship like
how when he was small.
8. Stanza II
• In this stanza father
acknowledges his role in the
communication gap between his
child and himself. He has taken
all effort to bring him up as he
wished. But his son has got his
own mental plane. His son was in
a place that he could not access.
9. Stanza III
• There is silence between the father and
the son. The father very badly wishes that
like Prodigal son his son also comes back
to his house after realising his mistakes.
• Prodigal son is a character from New
Testaments Parables of Jesus. in the
story a father has got two sons
traditionally the eldest is the heir to the
family property. But here the younger
demanded his inheritance, leaves home,
spends his fortune foolishly and returns
to his father's house empty handed.
10. Stanza IV
• The son speaks for the first
time in the stanza. He was
also found to be sad about
the gap arose between
them. He does not
understand himself. Both
are ready to forgive each
other . As a gesture of that
they put out an empty
hand . But neither places
his in the other's hand.
11. Poetic Devices
1. Antithesis: It is device in which two contrasting or opposing ideas are put
together
E.g. a. The land is his and none of mine b. shaping from sorrow a new love.
2. Alliteration: it is the repetition of the same consonant sounds or same
letters at the beginning or most of the words in a sentence.
a. Silence surrounds us .
b. The seed I spent or sown
c. The home he knew
12. Poetic Devices
3. Metaphor: It is implicit
comparison made between two
unlike thingsn that actually have
something in common
Eg: The land is his and none of mine.
(The words 'seed', 'sown', and 'land'
are metaphors for
the father's efforts that he made to
build loving relationship with
his son, and the son's heart
respectively)
4. Simile: We speak like strangers'
the poetic device used is 'simile'.
13. Textual Questions
1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal
experience or is it fairly universal?
2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the
poem?
3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance
between father and son.
14. Additional Questions
1. Why does the father say that he knows nothing of him?
2. What kind of relationship does he want to build up?
3. What does the word 'seed' signify?
4. What does the speaker mean by the land?
5. What would the father do to shape a new love from
sorrow?
