Elegy For My Father's Father: An analysis
What does death hold for an eighty year old man who has never spoken his heart? And why is he not afraid of what the mouths of the dead say? These are only a few questions among a lot of questions that could be asked about the poem. The way the poem is arranged is strange and only the things laid out plainly can be interpreted as what they are. But the ambiguity is intentional and adds quite a lot to the poem.
Though the term ‘Elegy’ means lament, the tone of the poem is mixed, with celebration, sorrow and possibly regret. One of them may be for a life lived without expression of feelings, but the feeling expressed might not even be regret as in the end, his heart was "unafraid". The poem refers twice to the fact that ‘his heart had never spoken’. The reader gains the impression of a somewhat grim and taciturn man. Even his family seems to find it difficult to mourn his passing, a sentiment expressed in lines nine to eleven. It is not clear if his family feels as awkward as he in expressing their emotions or if in fact there was no love for him. The word "bitter" stands out when describing his descendents. Maybe he and his family indeed had an unpleasant relationship. Maybe this answers our question as to why memorial is denied for him especially since we see him work so hard. Distance in relationship can be shown by the fact that Baxter does not mention "grandfather" but uses, instead, "father's father" which shows coldness in the relationship or maybe shows that his descendents didn’t know him well enough because he kept his feelings to himself as shown in the line "the pride of his heart was dumb". Maybe love wasn't expressed in words.
