"Elegy for My Father Who is Not Dead"

This poem is about a father with very strong faith and conviction. However, his son, the speaker of the poem, can be viewed as somewhat of a pessimist or a doubter. Throughout the poem, the father and son and their attitudes juxtapose each other. The author's use of a metaphor and strong contrasts in the piece make the poem effective. The father has a positive attitude toward death and life after death, but the son has a negative attitude and perspective about what he thinks will happen. Like many other people, the son in the poem sees his father's view of death as a journey or trip into a new and different world. I see this as an extended metaphor that continues throughout the rest of the poem. At the end of the poem, when the son describes two conflicting scenes with a ship and a deck, there is a clear difference shown between the opinions and beliefs of the father versus those of his son. These lines that discuss the boat and deck setting basically reveal that the father believes in life after death and reuniting with God and his family once again, while the son is hesitant and uncertain about what occurs after death. I think that this poem, like two of the other poems from the past unit, utilize hope with different meanings. The father in the poem has hope that is defined as conviction without doubt. On the other hand, the son has hope that is defined as wishing without real expectations.