5 Oct 2020

Father to son class 11 NCERT solutions

Father to son class 11 NCERT solutions 

Father to son class 11 NCERT solutions

Father to son class 11 NCERT solutions : Father to son is a poem from the class 11 NCERT English main text-book, The poem father to son is composed by the poet Elizabeth Jennings. Here you'll get Father to son class 11 NCERT solutions. 

Father to son class 11 questions answers

In the poem Father to Son the poet tries to describes the troubled relationship between a father and his son. The poem talks about generation-gap between the father and the son and voices the father’s pain and helplessness in failing to understand his child. Here you'll get to topics related to the poem father to son are as follows..

  • Father to son central idea of the poem, 
  • Father to son theme of the poem, 
  • Father to son short summary in English, 
  • Father to son summary in English, 
  • Father to son summary in Hindi, 
  • Father to son poetic devices used in the poem, 
  • Father to son textbook questions answers,
  • Father to son short questions answers, 
  • Father to son important questions answers, 
  • Father to son extra questions answers. 

Father to son central idea of the poem


Father to son is a poem describing the troubled relationship between a father and his son, in the present times. The poem emphasises the generation-gap between the father and the son and expresses the father’s pain and helplessness in failing to ‘understand’ his child. The father realizes the distance between them and wishes to bridge the gap.


Father to son theme of the poem


The theme of this poem "Father to son" is about the relationship between a father and son and the generation gap that exists between them. The poem talks about the universal problem - lack of communication and understanding.

Father to son short summary in English

The Father to Son summary deals with the anguish of a father who lacks a good relationship with his son. Furthermore, his son is now an adult. Moreover, his son is now busy in life.

Also, the father is bitter regarding the generation gap between him and his son. He is troubled by a feeling of separation with his son. The father expresses his feeling by saying that he does not know much about his son. There also is no sign of understanding.

The father has a desire that he wants his relationship with his son to be just like when his son was a child. He tries to mend the relationship but the efforts are in vain. He tries his best to resolve this issue with his son but with no success. So, they are drifting apart.

Father to son summary in English

In the poem there is a father who feels the extreme pain of his son's detachment with him. Father understands the son as a child but the son has already begun considering himself as a grown up. A lot of space is left between the father and the son.

The father complains that he does not understand his own child. Though they have lived together for so many years now i.e. since the time of his son's birth, the father knows nothing of him.

The father tries to build up a relationship with his son from the early years, in a manner when his son began to recognize people around, to crawl and to walk in a desperate attempt. The father wonders whether he has destroyed the seed of his off-spring or sown it where the land belongs to his heir and none is his.

Both father and son continue to speak like strangers now and there seem no signs of understanding in the air between the two. In traditional belief, the son is created and born to the likings and designs of his father, yet in this case, the father cannot share what his son loves. Most of the time silence surrounds them.

The father's greatest wish is for his son to be 'The Prodigal' son who will very soon return to his father's house; the home which he always knew. This is definitely the better alternative rather than to see his son move out into the world blindly on his own, by himself and fall into trouble.

The father is ready to forgive him at any cost as long as he is able to reshape him up from the long bounded sorrow to a new love.

Both father and son all over the world must learn to live on the same globe and on the same land. The father finally admits that there are times that he cannot understand himself or why his anger grows from grief ?

However they have learnt to put out each other's empty hand and with each other's heart that is longing for something to forgive.

Father to son summary in Hindi

कविता में एक पिता है जो अपने बेटे की टुकड़ी के चरम दर्द को महसूस करता है। पिता बेटे को एक बच्चा समझता है लेकिन बेटा पहले से ही खुद को बड़ा समझने लगा है। पिता और पुत्र के बीच बहुत सी जगह बची है।

पिता शिकायत करता है कि वह अपने बच्चे को नहीं समझता है। हालाँकि वे अब इतने सालों से एक साथ रह रहे हैं यानी अपने बेटे के जन्म के समय से, पिता को उनके बारे में कुछ भी नहीं पता है।

पिता अपने बेटे के साथ शुरुआती वर्षों से संबंध बनाने की कोशिश करता है, एक तरीके से जब उसका बेटा आसपास के लोगों को पहचानने, क्रॉल करने और एक हताश प्रयास में चलने लगा। पिता आश्चर्य करता है कि क्या उसने अपने ऑफ-स्प्रिंग के बीज को नष्ट कर दिया है या इसे बोया है जहां भूमि उसके वारिस की है और कोई भी उसका नहीं है।

पिता और पुत्र दोनों ही अब अजनबी की तरह बोलते रहते हैं और दोनों के बीच हवा में समझ के कोई संकेत नहीं दिखते हैं। पारंपरिक विश्वास में, बेटा अपने पिता की पसंद और डिजाइन के अनुसार बनाया और पैदा होता है, फिर भी इस मामले में, पिता वह साझा नहीं कर सकता जो उसके बेटे को पसंद है। ज्यादातर समय मौन उन्हें घेरे रहता है।

पिता की सबसे बड़ी इच्छा अपने बेटे के लिए 'द प्रोडिगल' बेटा है, जो बहुत जल्द अपने पिता के घर लौट आएगा; वह घर जो वह हमेशा से जानता था। यह निश्चित रूप से बेहतर विकल्प है बजाय इसके कि वह अपने बेटे को दुनिया से बाहर आंख मूंद कर, खुद से और मुश्किल में पड़ते हुए देखें।

पिता किसी भी कीमत पर उसे तब तक माफ करने के लिए तैयार है जब तक कि वह उसे लंबे समय तक बंधे हुए दुःख से एक नए प्यार में बदलने में सक्षम न हो जाए।

दुनिया भर में पिता और पुत्र दोनों को एक ही दुनिया और एक ही भूमि पर रहना सीखना चाहिए। पिता आखिरकार स्वीकार करते हैं कि कई बार ऐसा होता है कि वह खुद को समझ नहीं पाते हैं या उनका गुस्सा दुःख से क्यों बढ़ता है?

हालाँकि उन्होंने एक-दूसरे के खाली हाथ और एक-दूसरे के दिल के साथ रहना सीख लिया है जो किसी चीज़ को क्षमा करने के लिए तरस रहा है।


Father to son poetic devices used in the poem:


• Metaphor :
‘Yet have I killed
The seed I spent or sown it where
The land is his and none of mine?’

• Alliteration :  The seed I spent or sown it where’, and ‘Silence surrounds us

• Simile :  We speak like strangers

• Rhyme scheme: abbaba.


Father to son Textbook Questions Answers HS 1st year


• Page No: 86
Think It Out

Q1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal ? 
Ans: The poem does talk of an exclusively personal experience. However, we can also call it fairly universal because a conflict like this is quite common in many households. It is also known as generation gap.

Q2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem ? 
Ans: The helplessness of the father is highlighted through the depiction of the emotional struggle that he undergoes. He is aware of the problem and is willing to resolve it, but is unable to do so. He regrets the lack of a strong emotional bond and proper communication with his son who is also physically distanced from him.

Q3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son. 
Ans: Phrases/lines that indicate distance between the father and the son are:
1. ‘I do not understand this child’
2. ‘I know / Nothing of him’
3. ‘We speak like strangers’
4. ‘there’s no sign/ Of understanding in the air’
5. ‘Silence surrounds us.’

Q4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme ? 
Ans: No, the poem does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme.

Father to Son Short Questions Answers

Q1. What is the present state of the son according to the father ? 
Ans: According to the father, his son has made a world of his own. He is the master of the world. He does not depends on his father anymore.

Q2. What does the father say about the built up of his son ? 
Ans: The father says that the child is built to his design. In other words, he has grown on expected lines. Yet, the difficulty is that the father does not understand his emotion. This grieves him.

Q3. Why can’t the father understand what his son speaks ? 
Ans: The father cannot understand what his son speaks because of the generation gap. The emotions of the son are unknown to the father.

Q4. How do the father and son speak to each other ? 
Ans: Father and son speak to each other like strangers. There is no sign of understanding between each other or in their attitude.

Q5. What is the father’s problem in the poem ‘Father to Son’ ? 
Ans: Father’s problem is that he does not understand his son. Though, he has lived with his son in the same house for years, he feels that he knows nothing of him.

Q6. What does the father intend to do in order to be able to understand his son ? 
Ans: The father finds it very difficult to understand his grown up child. So, he has a new plan. He tries to build a relationship thinking how his son was when he was small.

Q7. How does the father feel when his relationship with his son comes under strain ? 
Ans: Father feels very helpless at this situation when both father and son do not understand each other. It saddens him to understand that he has never tried to understand his son’s perspective and his son has distanced himself from him from long.

Q8. What is the father’s attitude towards his son in the third stanza ? 
Ans: The father wants to rectify the situation in the third stanza. The father wants his son return to the home that he has left. The father is willing to forgive his son and restart their relationship.

Father to son important questions answers

Q1. What does the speaker say about father-son relationship ? 
Ans: Actually, the father-son relationship is non-functional. The father does not understand the aspirations, longings or cravings of the son. They speak like strangers and lack of communication and understanding. Their exchanges, if any, are just formal. Otherwise, silence surrounds them.

Q2. What does the father wish for ? 
Ans: The father is unhappy and helpless. He wants to maintain a healthy relationship with his son. The father wants that his prodigal son may return to his home and start living under the same roof with him. He doesn’t want that he should create and live in a world of his own.

Q3. Why do you think the father appears the helpless ? 
Ans: The father is unable to understand what his son loves to do. He is not in a position to advise him as there is hardly any intimacy between them. They speak like strangers, otherwise there is silence around them. The son has his own dreams and plans which the father does not appreciate.

Q4. What does the poet mean by ‘Silence surrounds us ?’ 
Ans: The father feels helpless as he has no dialogue with his son. They don’t understand each other and they are living like strangers to each other in spite of their living under the same roof for years. Their outlook and temperament are so different that they remain separated from each other. They have a communication gap along with the generation gap, which causes the silence.

Q5. How does the father feel when his relationship with his son comes under strain ? 
Ans: Father feels very helpless at this situation when both father and son do not understand each other. It saddens him to understand that he has never tried to understand his son’s perspective and his son has distanced himself from him from long.

Q6. How can you infer that the father wishes his son to remain at home with him ? 
Ans: The father finds the son’s interests quite different. He is home bound, whereas the son is on the look out for fresh avenues. He aspires for a world of his own. The father wants him to return home even if he undergoes losses by extravagant ventures. He is willing to make up with him if he agrees to live with him.

Q7. What do you think is responsible for the distance between father and son ? 
Ans: The lack of understanding on the part of the older generation is at the root of the problem. The father wants the young man to stick to home turf. The son, now a young man, seeks fresh avenues and lives in a world of his own. The father finds it hard to adjust to the growing charges.

Q8. ‘I would have ….. Him prodigal’, says the father. Does he really want his son to be so ? 
Ans: No, the father does not want his son to be really prodigal. He says these words only to show how much he aspires for closeness with his son. To get him back to him, he would even have him prodigal.

Father to son extra questions answers

Q1. Why doesn’t the father know anything about his son though they have lived in the same house ? 
Ans: The father-son relationship is actually non-functional. The father doesn’t understand the aspirations, longings arid cravings of the son. They do not communicate with each other and behave like strangers. Therefore, the father doesn’t know anything about his son.

Q2. Is the father responsible for the present situation ? What are your views ? 
Ans: Yes, I think the father is responsible for the present situation. We do not get to hear the son’s version about his relationship with the father here. But the father is guilty of allowing continued silence or non-communication between them and also not understanding the son’s aspirations and feelings.

Q3. Father and the son behave like strangers to each other. What can be the possible reason with for this ? 
Ans: They both act and behave like strangers due to lack of understanding with each other. A growing son has his own ambitions and aspirations. Elders must try to act like friends rather than command their children to behave according to their orders.

Q4. What is the father’s attitude towards his son in the third stanza ? 
Ans: The father wants to rectify the situation in the third stanza. The father wants his son return to the home that he has left. The father is willing to forgive his son and restart their relationship.

Q5. The father is ready to have his prodigal son return. What inference can you draw from this ? 
Ans: Prodigal means wastefully extravagant. Here the reference is to the story in the Bible in which a father gives his inheritance to his sons. The younger brother leaves, wastes his fortune and returns to his father’s home. Still the father is ready to take him back and forgive him. In the poem, the father also wants to forgive him so that they live peacefully together again.

Q6. What do the words ‘an empty hand’ signify ? 
Ans: The words ‘empty hand’ signify that both the father arid the son want to forgive each other and extend a hand of friendship to each other, but neither of them is willing to be the first one to do so. This means that although they are longing to forgive each other, their egos are coming in the way so that none of them wants to be the first one to do so.

Q7. What do you think is responsible for the distance between father and son ? 
Ans: The lack of understanding on the part of the older generation (father) is the root of the problem. The father wants the young man to stick to home turf. The son, now a young man, seeks fresh avenues and lives in a world of his own. The father finds it hard to adjust to the growing changes.

Q8. How can you infer that the father wishes his son to remain at home with him ? 
Ans: The father finds the son’s interests quite different. He is home bound, whereas the son is on the look out for fresh avenues. He aspires for a world of his own. The father wants him to return home even if he undergoes losses by his extravagant ventures. He is willing to make up with him if he agrees to live with him.



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