In contrast, the poem “My father thought it…” describes a father’s disappointment on an action of his son. “My father thought it bloody queer”. The extract from the first stanza of the poem, interprets the fact that the father thought that his son getting a piercing was weird or strange, in this case by the use of the word ‘queer’. The father thought that his son was ‘easily lead’ and then later on the son says “If I were you, I’d take it out and leave it out next year”. This shows that the son might have lost the respect and/ or the love of his father by getting a piercing done, under the influence of his peers. This could also suggest that the son is perhaps disappointed or feels that he has to live by his father’s rules and he can’t choose how to live but then again, it can be argued that he’s young and his father would know best how he should lead his life. This wouldn’t have been the way that the father would’ve raised his son, in fact, any good father would raise his son to have a mind and thinking of his own, not to do something by the influence of the others. This might have been the reason of the son losing his father’s respect and be ashamed of himself.
In my interpretation, the poem “My father thought it…” shows a strong father and son relationship because, in this poem a father uses a parental technique to show his son that he’s either done something wrong or that the father is disappointed in his son, this techniques works as you see the son reflecting on his action and realising his mistake, which shows a good father and son relationship.
This contrasts to the poem “On my first Sonne” in numerous ways, one of them being the fact that this poem is a fairly short poem with many impactful features hidden inside. The first line “Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy” shows that the father is saying goodbye to his son, which he loved, and the love for his child is shown by the use of the phrase ‘child of my right hand and joy’. We also gather the age of the child “seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me”.
Further more, the author uses the following quotation “O, could I loose all father, now. For why” this simulates the fact that the father is asking that why did he loose his son, which shows us that the father constantly switched between him saying goodbye and accepting the death of his son and him asking and grieving that he lost his son. So the father can’t make up his mind about the death of his son, showing that he is in an emotional state which indicates another strong father and son relationship as you wouldn’t grieve about someone who wasn’t loved by you.
“The affliction of Margaret” is a poem which also shows a parent coping with the loss of a child but in this case the poem isn’t really clear about the loss of the child as it doesn’t indicate whether the child is lost, gone missing, sent somewhere, ran away or dead. As soon as we start reading the poem, we come across “Where art thou, my beloved son” which clearly indicates that the mother is asking the question ‘where art thou’ to touch on the fact that her son is no longer with her. By further look at the quote “Seven Years, Alas! To have received” we also establish that it’s been seven years since the son has been away from his mother
By a further in depth analysis of the poem, we gather that the poem is a mixture of the mother explaining the audience, what a model child he was and describing how she wanted him to be like. This sort of shows a good relationship from the mother for her son but the not the other way round. Meaning that the mother loved her son but the son might not have returned that love or might not have loved her back or maybe because his mother’s expectations were too much for the child, he might’ve left her mother.
The structure of the four poems also plays an important role in order to convey the message that a poet is trying to portray. The poem “The affliction of Margaret” is a considerably long poem with seven lines each, which might indicate the period, the son has been gone for. Its also written with am ABABCCC rhyme scheme which is most commonly used in songs, this might indicate the sorrow of the mother that she actually wrote a poem in style of a song.
This completely contrasts with “On my first sonne” which is a fairly short poem consisting of twelve lines, written in a sort of sonnet style which is usually associated with poetry for a couple but in this case the sonnet style indicates the parental love for a child, this also indicate how much the father loved his son. Furthermore the shortness of the poem might also suggest the loss of speech or ‘lost for words’ by the father displaying a strong emotional state.
On the other hand, “My father thought it...” is a three stanza poem consisting fifteen lines, which uses various rhyming scheme. On the first stanza, the rhyme scheme is AABBB, associating this sort of rhyme to younger audience or nursery rhymes. The second stanza hosts half rhymes suggesting that it is for an older audience such as late primary/ early secondary students and then the last stanza has rhymes which are scattered or scrambled amongst various places in a certain line, suggesting that it is for adults or for mature audience. This whole play with the rhyme scheme shows that the son is aging.
Alternatively, In the poem “Before you were mine”, Carol Ann Duffy makes the use of unrhymed pentameters, where there are no rhymes to indicate that she is unhappy or upset with something.
Concluding my understanding and the analysis of the four poems above, the four different writers have used numerous tools and techniques to convey the different ideas each writer has about the theme of family relationships. You can also see that each poem is different and stand out on its own because the each writer would’ve wrote the poems corresponding to their own.
