AHSEC (ASSEB) Class 11 English Hornbill – Chapter 14 Solutions –Father to Son | Assam Eduverse
Chapter Overview:
Assam Eduverse presents the summary and solutions of Class 11 English (AHSEC/ASSEB) – Hornbill, Chapter 14: Father to Son by Elizabeth Jennings. This poem is a deeply emotional reflection on the communication gap between a father and his son, making it highly relevant for exam preparation with both summary and textbook question answers.
In Father to Son, the poet portrays the pain of a father-son relationship strained by emotional distance. The father laments that although they share the same house and blood, he hardly recognizes his own son. The son, too, feels alienated, creating a wall of silence between them. The father admits to being both sad and angry, as he longs for closeness but finds himself helpless in bridging the divide.
The poem highlights the universal theme of the generation gap, where both father and son desire reconciliation but struggle to express their feelings. In the end, the father stretches out his hands, yearning for understanding, even if they remain “empty.” This makes Chapter 14: Father to Son in the Hornbill textbook (AHSEC/ASSEB) an important poem that encourages students to reflect on family relationships, communication, and love while preparing for their exams with both summary and solutions.
AHSEC (ASSEB) Class 11 English Hornbill – Chapter 14: Father to Son Solutions & Question Answers
📖 Summary of Father to Son
Chapter 14 – Class 11 Hornbill
The poem Father to Son by Elizabeth Jennings explores the painful communication gap between a father and his son. Though they live in the same house and share the same blood, the father feels that his son has become a stranger. He struggles to recognize the boy he once raised, and this distance fills him with both grief and anger.
The father expresses his longing to rebuild the bond of love, but both he and his son remain trapped in silence. The father feels helpless, unable to bridge the widening gap, and admits that he does not understand the young man his son has become. This makes their relationship one of yearning but also of frustration.
In the final lines, the father extends his hands toward his son, even if they remain empty, symbolizing his desperate wish for reconciliation. The poem beautifully captures the universal struggle of the generation gap, where both father and son desire closeness but fail to communicate.
Conclusion: Chapter 14 emphasizes the importance of love, communication, and understanding in bridging generational divides, making it a moving part of the Hornbill textbook for Class 11 (AHSEC/ASSEB).
— From the book Hornbill
Think it out
Q1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?
Answer: The poem talks about a very universal experience. While it is from a father’s perspective, the themes of communication breakdown, the generation gap, and the pain of feeling like a stranger to your own family are feelings that many people can relate to.
Q2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
Answer: The father’s helplessness is shown in many ways. He says he knows “nothing of him,” that they “speak like strangers,” and that he “cannot share” what his son loves. The line “We each put out an empty hand, Longing for something to forgive” shows that both are trying to connect but are unable to.
Q3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate distance between father and son.
Answer:
“I know nothing of him”
“We speak like strangers, there’s no sign of understanding in the air.”
“Yet what he loves I cannot share.”
“Silence surrounds us.”
“He speaks: I cannot understand.”
“We each put out an empty hand”
Q4. Does the poem by Elizabeth jennings have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Answer: No, the poem “Father to Son” by Elizabeth Jennings does not have a consistent rhyme scheme. While some sources suggest a pattern in the first two stanzas, the rhyme scheme changes in the later stanzas. This lack of a fixed rhyme scheme can be seen as a reflection of the poem’s theme: the fragmented and inconsistent relationship between the father and son.
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