NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English (Hornbill) Poem 5: Father to Son

Complete solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 5 – “Father to Son” by Elizabeth Jennings: an original summary, theme and message, word meanings, and every “Think it out” question answered in full, exam-ready prose. The textbook questions are reproduced exactly as in the NCERT book; the summary, explanation and answers are written originally by ClearStudy, with only short lines of the poem quoted where needed for explanation.

Class: 11 Subject: English Book: Hornbill Type: Poem (Poem 5) Poet: Elizabeth Jennings Session: 2026–27

On this page

About the poet
Summary
Theme & message
Word meanings
Think it out (textbook questions)
Extra questions
MCQs & Assertion–Reason
Exam tips
FAQs

About the poet

Elizabeth Jennings (1926–2001) was an English poet, born in Boston, Lincolnshire, and educated at the University of Oxford. She is often grouped with ‘The Movement’ poets of the 1950s, though her voice remained deeply personal and reflective. Her poetry is known for its quiet clarity, traditional form, and honest exploration of human relationships, faith, loneliness and inner conflict. A devout Roman Catholic, she wrote with great emotional restraint and tenderness. In “Father to Son”, Jennings turns her sensitive eye on the painful gap that can grow between a parent and a grown child – a theme rooted in personal feeling yet recognisable to readers everywhere.

Summary

“Father to Son” is the anguished monologue of a father who feels he has lost touch with his own son. Though the two have lived under one roof for years, the father admits that he knows almost nothing about the young man he has raised. He can only try to rebuild a bond by remembering his son as a small child, because the grown son has become a stranger to him.

The father is tormented by a guilty doubt: did he fail in raising his son, or did he simply allow the boy to grow into a world that is entirely his own and not the father’s? They now speak to each other like strangers, and there is no sign of warmth or understanding between them. Painfully, the father observes that although the son was “built to my design” – shaped by the father’s upbringing – the things the son now loves are things the father cannot share.

A heavy silence surrounds them both. Like a parent longing for the return of a wandering child, the father wishes his son would come back to the familiar home rather than go off to make his own separate life. He is ready to forgive, hoping to shape a new love out of his sorrow. Yet the gulf remains. The father confesses that even he cannot understand why anger keeps rising out of his grief. In the moving final image, both father and son stretch out an empty hand, each longing for something to forgive and to be reconciled – but neither is able to bridge the distance. The poem ends not in resolution but in shared, helpless yearning, capturing the tragedy of two people who love each other yet cannot communicate.

Theme & message

The central theme of the poem is the generation gap and the breakdown of communication between a parent and a grown-up child. Jennings shows how living together physically does not guarantee emotional closeness; people who share a home can still become strangers. The poem also explores parental love, guilt and helplessness – the father blames himself, yet cannot find the words or the way to reach his son. Above all, it carries a message of the deep human longing for understanding and forgiveness. The repeated image of the “empty hand” suggests that both generations want reconciliation but feel powerless to begin it. The message is gently universal: relationships need open, ongoing communication and empathy, or even the strongest natural bond can wither into silence.

Word meanings

Word / Phrase	Meaning
build up a relationship	to slowly create a bond or connection
the seed I spent	(metaphor) the child the father brought into the world / raised
sown it where	planted it (the metaphor of growth and parenting)
none of mine	not belonging to me at all
speak like strangers	talk without warmth or familiarity
no sign of understanding in the air	no feeling of mutual sympathy between them
built to my design	shaped/raised according to the father’s wishes
cannot share	cannot enjoy or take part in
silence surrounds us	an uncomfortable, wordless gap separates them
prodigal	a wasteful wanderer who later returns (from the biblical ‘Prodigal Son’)
returning to / his father’s house	coming back to the familiar home and bond
make and move / his world	build and live an independent life of his own
forgive	to pardon; to stop feeling resentment
shaping from sorrow a new love	creating fresh affection out of pain and grief
the same globe and the same land	they share the same world yet remain apart
anger grows from grief	resentment rises out of deep sadness
put out an empty hand	reach out hopelessly, with nothing to offer or receive
longing	a strong, deep desire or yearning

Think it out

The following questions are reproduced verbatim from the NCERT Hornbill textbook (“Think it out”, after ‘Father to Son’). Answers are original.

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

ANSWERAlthough the poem grows out of one father’s personal pain, the experience it describes is fairly universal. The widening gap between a parent and a grown-up child – the loss of communication, the feeling that one’s own child has become a stranger – is something countless families experience across cultures and generations.The father’s emotions are deeply individual: he speaks in the first person of “this child” he no longer understands. Yet there are no specific names, places or events. This deliberate lack of detail makes the situation representative rather than private. The ‘generation gap’, the silence between people who live together, and the mutual longing for forgiveness are shared human realities. Therefore the poem begins as a personal confession but speaks for parents and children everywhere – it is both personal and universal at once.

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

ANSWERThe father’s helplessness runs through every stanza. He openly confesses, “I do not understand this child”, even though they have lived in the same house for years – he can know his son only by recalling “how / He was when small”. This inability to reach the son in the present is the first sign of his helplessness.It deepens as he asks whether he has “killed / The seed I spent” or merely sown it on land that is “his and none of mine” – he cannot even be sure where he went wrong. They “speak like strangers”, and though the son is “built to my design”, the father admits “what he loves I cannot share”. He longs for the son to return like the prodigal, and is willing to forgive, yet he cannot make this happen. His helplessness is most painful in the line, “I cannot understand / Myself, why anger grows from grief.” He cannot understand his son, cannot bridge the silence, and cannot even control his own emotions – the final image of an “empty hand” perfectly captures his powerlessness.

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

ANSWERSeveral phrases and lines highlight the emotional distance between the two:• “I do not understand this child” – the father admits a basic lack of understanding.• “I know / Nothing of him” – despite years together, he knows nothing about his son.• “We speak like strangers” – they talk without warmth or familiarity.• “there’s no sign / Of understanding in the air” – no sympathy passes between them.• “what he loves I cannot share” – their interests and inner lives no longer meet.• “Silence surrounds us” – an uncomfortable wordlessness separates them.• “We each put out an empty hand, / Longing for something to forgive” – both reach out but cannot connect.

4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?

ANSWERNo, the poem does not follow a single, perfectly consistent rhyme scheme. It is written in four stanzas of six lines each (sestets). The first stanza follows roughly an ABCABC pattern (child/build, now/how, know/where in a loose chain). The later stanzas use a similar idea of interlocking rhymes but with several slant (near) rhymes rather than exact ones – for example “have / move / live” or “land / hand” set against “understand”.So while there is a loose, recurring framework of half-rhymes that gives the poem unity, the rhymes are not strictly regular throughout. This slightly broken, imperfect rhyming actually mirrors the poem’s theme – the disturbed, imperfect relationship between father and son – making the irregularity feel deliberate and meaningful.

Extra questions

Short answer (30–40 words)

1. Why does the father say he knows “Nothing” of his son?

ANSWERAlthough they have shared the same house for years, the two have stopped communicating meaningfully. The son has grown into his own world with his own interests, so the father feels he no longer knows or understands the young man at all.

2. What does the metaphor of the “seed” suggest in the poem?

ANSWERThe “seed” the father “spent” stands for the child he brought up. He wonders whether he “killed” that seed (failed in raising him) or simply “sown it” on land that is the son’s own – a separate, independent life.

3. Who is the “prodigal”, and why does the father use this word?

ANSWERThe word recalls the biblical Prodigal Son, who left home and later returned to be forgiven. The father wishes his son were like that – one who would return to “his father’s house” rather than build a separate world away from him.

4. Explain the line “why anger grows from grief.”

ANSWERThe father is deeply saddened (grief) by the distance from his son. This sorrow turns into frustration and resentment (anger) because he feels helpless. He confesses he cannot even understand this confusing change within himself.

5. What is suggested by the image of the “empty hand”?

ANSWERBoth father and son stretch out an “empty hand”, showing they each want to reconcile but have nothing to give and do not know how to begin. It powerfully captures their mutual longing, helplessness and failure to connect.

Long answer (100–120 words)

6. How does “Father to Son” portray the theme of the generation gap?

ANSWERThe poem portrays the generation gap as a painful emotional distance that can grow even between people who live together. The father confesses he understands “Nothing” of his son, though they have shared one house for years. They “speak like strangers” with “no sign / Of understanding in the air”, and what the son loves the father “cannot share”. Jennings shows that the son, though raised by the father, has built a separate world with different values and interests. Communication has broken down into silence. The gap is so deep that both reach out an “empty hand”, longing for forgiveness yet unable to bridge the distance – a moving picture of the modern generation gap.

7. Discuss how the tone and structure of the poem reflect its meaning.

ANSWERThe tone of “Father to Son” is sad, regretful and confessional. Speaking in the first person, the father openly admits his failure and helplessness, which makes the emotion intimate and sincere. The poem is built in four six-line stanzas, giving it a steady, controlled outward form. However, the rhyme scheme uses many slant (imperfect) rhymes instead of exact ones. This broken, irregular rhyming mirrors the broken, imperfect relationship between father and son. The quiet, restrained language – with no shouting or drama – reflects the silence that surrounds the two. Thus the poem’s gentle tone and its disturbed structure work together to deepen its central meaning of loss, distance and unfulfilled longing.

8. “The poem ends without a resolution.” Do you agree? Justify your answer.

ANSWERYes, the poem deliberately ends without resolution. Throughout, the father longs for reconciliation – he wishes the son would return like the prodigal and says he would “forgive him too”, “Shaping from sorrow a new love”. Yet no real reconnection takes place. In the final stanza, although both “must live / On the same globe and the same land”, the father still “cannot understand”. The closing image shows them both putting out an “empty hand, / Longing for something to forgive”. They reach toward each other but never actually clasp hands. This open, unresolved ending makes the poem more truthful and more moving, leaving the reader with a sense of helpless, shared yearning rather than easy comfort.

MCQs & Assertion–Reason

1. Who is the poet of “Father to Son”?

(a) Walt Whitman (b) Elizabeth Jennings (c) Robert Frost (d) Markus Natten

2. How long have the father and son lived together?

(a) A few months (b) For years (c) A lifetime apart (d) Only as adults

3. The father can build a relationship only by remembering his son as he was:

(a) a teenager (b) a stranger (c) when small (d) at college

4. “We speak like strangers” shows that between father and son there is:

(a) great warmth (b) frequent quarrels (c) lack of understanding (d) full agreement

5. The word “prodigal” in the poem alludes to:

(a) a Greek myth (b) the biblical Prodigal Son (c) a fairy tale (d) a historical king

6. The father says the son was “built to my design”, yet:

(a) what he loves the father cannot share (b) he looks nothing like him (c) he has left the country (d) he refuses to speak

7. According to the father, his anger grows from:

(a) pride (b) grief (c) jealousy (d) fear

8. In the last stanza, both father and son put out:

(a) a warm hand (b) a closed fist (c) an empty hand (d) a written note

9. The poem is mainly written from the point of view of the:

(a) son (b) mother (c) father (d) a neighbour

10. The overall mood of the poem is:

(a) cheerful and hopeful (b) sad and helpless (c) angry and violent (d) calm and contented

Answer key (MCQ): 1-(b) 2-(b) 3-(c) 4-(c) 5-(b) 6-(a) 7-(b) 8-(c) 9-(c) 10-(b)

Assertion–Reason – choose: (a) A and R true, R explains A; (b) A and R true, R does not explain A; (c) A true, R false; (d) A false, R true.

1. Assertion (A): The father feels he knows nothing about his son.

Reason (R): The two have stopped communicating meaningfully though they live in the same house.

2. Assertion (A): The poem describes an exclusively personal, one-of-a-kind situation.

Reason (R): The generation gap and loss of communication it shows are experienced by families everywhere.

3. Assertion (A): The father wishes his son were like the prodigal.

Reason (R): He wants the son to return to his father’s house rather than build a separate world.

4. Assertion (A): The poem ends with a happy reconciliation between father and son.

Reason (R): Both stretch out an empty hand, longing for something to forgive.

5. Assertion (A): The imperfect, slant rhyme scheme suits the poem’s meaning.

Reason (R): The broken rhyme mirrors the broken relationship between father and son.

Answer key (A–R): 1-(a) 2-(d) 3-(a) 4-(d) [A is false – there is no reconciliation; R is true] 5-(a)

Exam tips

How to score in “Father to Son”

• Always link your answer to the generation gap and the breakdown of communication – these are the examiner’s keywords.
• Quote short phrases such as “We speak like strangers”, “Silence surrounds us” and “empty hand” to support points – but do not copy out whole stanzas.
• Remember the “prodigal” allusion (the biblical Prodigal Son) – it is a common one-mark question.
• For the rhyme-scheme question, state clearly that the rhyme is loose / inconsistent with slant rhymes, and add that this mirrors the disturbed relationship for an extra mark.
• Note the poem is a dramatic monologue spoken by the father in the first person, with a sad, helpless, confessional tone.

FAQs

What is the central theme of “Father to Son”?

The poem is about the generation gap and the breakdown of communication between a father and his grown-up son, along with the parent’s love, guilt, helplessness and longing for forgiveness.

Why does the father call his son a “stranger”?

Though they have lived together for years, they no longer communicate or share interests. The son has grown into his own separate world, so the father feels he knows nothing about him – they “speak like strangers”.

What does the “empty hand” symbolise at the end of the poem?

It symbolises the mutual longing of both father and son for reconciliation and forgiveness, along with their helplessness – they reach out to each other but have nothing to give and cannot truly connect.

Questions are reproduced verbatim from the NCERT Hornbill textbook; the summary, explanation and answers are written originally by ClearStudy, with only short lines of the poem quoted for explanation.