NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 5 Father To Son

Think it out

Question:- 1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?

Answer:– The poem is autobiographical in character, and it depicts a father’s bond with his son. Starting with a purely personal experience, the poem progresses to a more general issue: the growing generation gap,  lack of communication and how neither of them understands what the other is thinking.

Question:- 2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?

Answer:- The picture of the father’s emotional battle emphasises his powerlessness. He recognises the problem and wishes to resolve it, but he is unable to do it. He points out the fact that his son has lost touch with him. He regrets the absence of a deep emotional tie and adequate communication with his estranged son, and he desires to restore their relationship from the ground up.

Question:- 3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.

Answer:- The phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son are given below:-

“land is his and none of mine”

“Him prodigal, returning to his father’s house”

“see him make and move his world”

“put out an empty hand”

Question:- 4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?

Answer:- The rhyme scheme of the poem is uneven. The rhyme-scheme of first two stanzas is ab ba ba whereas the third and fourth have a slight alteration in it. The third stanza has abc aba whereas the fourth one has abbcb scheme.