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Subject: FATHERS & SONS
Matches Found: 162

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` A BALLAD IN BLANK VERSE, by JOHN DAVIDSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His father's house looked out across a firth
Last Line: Women to love are waiting everywhere.'
Subject(s): Aphrodite; Atheism; Christianity; Death; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Mythology - Classical; Paganism & Pagans; Parents; Pride; Dead, The; Relatives; Parenthood; Self-esteem; Self-respect


A BALLAD OF LANCELOT, by JOHN DAVIDSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: By coasts where scalding deserts reek
Last Line: The look, the soul of guinevere.
Subject(s): Arthurian Legend; Death; Despair; Fathers & Sons; Grail; Lancelot Du Lac; Love; Loyalty; Arthur, King; Dead, The; Holy Grail; Graal


A FAMILY RECORD, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Not to myself this breath of vesper song
Last Line: Take my last offering ere I cross to thee!
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Fathers & Sons; Heritage; Heredity


A FATHER'S DILEMMA, by E. PEARL DANCEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: He did not know that I was in the woodshed
Last Line: You shouldn't disillusion little folks . . . About their dad!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A FATHER'S PRAYER, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God, you have given me a son
Last Line: A fit example for a son.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A MAN WITH SONS, by MARILYN HACKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You come back with a heaped-shopping basket
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A POEM FOR BENN'S GRADUATION FROM HIGH SCHOOL, by JOHN CIARDI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whenever I have an appointment to see the assistant
Last Line: To be terrified by that thought and its possibilites
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A PRAYER FOR BILL, by M. REES    Poem Text                    
First Line: When me and bill wuz ridin
Last Line: Wouldn't do to foller me.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Growth; Pine Trees; Trees


A PRESENTATION OF TWO BIRDS TO MY SON, by JAMES WRIGHT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Chicken. How shall I tell you what it is
Alternate Author Name(s): Wright, James A.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Birds


A SON'S LETTER TO HIS DEAD FATHER, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: I am writing this to you
Last Line: "up there somewhere in the silence, hear me, dad, and believe me / sincerely"
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A SYMPATHY, A WELCOME, by JOHN BERRYMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Feel for your bad fall how could I fail
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, John, Jr.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A VARIATION, by ROBERT CREELEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My son who is stranger
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


A WEEK IN A BOY'S LIFE, by JACQUES BOE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Chill was our sky: the swallows all had fled
Last Line: Beside his darling's grave.
Alternate Author Name(s): Jasmin, Jacques
Subject(s): Abel; Boys; Death; Fathers & Sons; God; Prayer; Dead, The


A WOMAN OF PARIS, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Retreating towards the marne, his regiment
Last Line: While women such as she are at its portal!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; France; Marriage; Soldiers; War; Dead, The; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


ADAM AND HIS FATHER, by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Adam's father, always a good provider
Last Line: "perhaps what I have always wanted is to want."
Subject(s): Desire; Fathers & Sons; Thailand; Travel; Journeys; Trips


AJAX: CHORUS, by SOPHOCLES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fair salamis, the billow's roar
Last Line: The deepest, bitterest curse thine ancient house hath borne!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Mythology - Classical


AN AFTERWORD TO MY FATHER, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Still the wood I knocked on
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, by ROBERT WRIGLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lucy doolin, first day on the job, stroked his goatee
Subject(s): Refuse & Refuse Disposal; Rats; Murder; Fathers & Sons; Conduct Of Life; Memory; Youth; Relationships


BALDWIN, by E. ETHELBERT MILLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You lie in bed listening
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


BEDTIME, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Usually I stay up late, my time
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Sleep


BEST WAY TO READ A BOOK, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Best way to read a book I know
Last Line: For him who reads them to his boy.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Books; Fathers & Sons; Reading


BOY, by JOHN CIARDI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He is in his room sulked shut. The small
Last Line: May sons forgive the fathers they obey
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


BOY AND FATHER, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The boy alexander understands his father to be a famous lawyer.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; God; Mothers


BOY AT THE WINDOW, by RICHARD WILBUR    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Seeing the snowman standing all alone
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Snowmen


CAIN, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So this is what it means
Last Line: My brother is.
Subject(s): Cain; Fathers & Sons


CAIN, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The land of nod
Last Line: Don't rise up
Subject(s): Cain; Fathers & Sons


CERTAIN PEOPLE, by RICHARD JONES    Poem Text                 Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: My father lives by the ocean
Last Line: I'd known him all my life.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Old Age; Strangers


COCK, by ALBERT GOLDBARTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A month before his dinner with the visiting spanish lawyer,
Subject(s): Darwin, Charles (1809-1882); Religion; Fathers & Sons; Lesbians; Theology


COUNTRY FELLOWS AND THE ASS; ABSURDITY OF ATTEMPTING TO PLEASE ALL MEN, by JOHN BYROM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A country fellow and his son, they tell
Last Line: To think of pleasing all is but a jest.
Variant Title(s): The Countrymen And The Ass
Subject(s): Fables; Fathers & Sons; Men; Allegories


COUSIN ALEX, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My cousin alex, tall and sinewy
Last Line: At alex's absence
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Cousins


ECONOMISIN', by BURGES JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dad was tickled when I went
Last Line: At my 'conomisin' so.
Subject(s): Children; Economics; Fathers & Sons; Gifts & Giving; Childhood


ELEUTHERIA, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She was named eleutheria
Subject(s): Child Molesting; Fathers & Sons; Freedom; Marriage; Relationships; Women's Rights; Writing & Writers; Child Abuse; Liberty; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Feminism


ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I will try to remember. It was light
Last Line: Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.
Subject(s): Children; Dramatists; Fathers & Sons; Funerals; Graves; Grief; Lear, King; Parents; Plays & Playwrights ; Poetry & Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Childhood; Burials; Tombs; Tombstones; Sorrow; Sadness; Parenthood; Dramatists


EPIGRAM: 21. THE POET'S FATHER, by CALLIMACHUS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whoever you are who wander near
Last Line: They will not cast their friends away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Kallimachos
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


FALL RIVER, by DAVID RIVARD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Basketball; Family Life; Anger; Relatives


FAMILIAR EPISTLE TO A LITTLE BOY, by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: I must own, my dear sonny, 'tis likely but few
Last Line: —look me up in the year nineteen-hundred-and-one.
Alternate Author Name(s): Pollex, D.; Walker, Patricius
Subject(s): Angels; Death; Fathers & Sons; Heaven; Memory; Dead, The; Paradise


FATHER AND SON, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: While we enjoy this meat, my son
Last Line: A tongue that told no lie?'
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Trust


FATHER AND SON, by IRVING FELDMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Set against each other, ready to butt
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


FATHER AND SON, by STANLEY JASSPON KUNITZ    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now in the suburbs and the falling light
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Reunions; World War Ii; Second World War


FATHER AND SON, by DELMORE SCHWARTZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On these occasions, the feelings surprise,
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Death; Coming Of Age; Conduct Of Life; Dead, The


FATHER'S GOOD SON, by ELIZABETH SEWELL HILL    Poem Text                    
First Line: The wheat hangs heavy to the further hill
Last Line: Runs around the spit where turns the fatted calf.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Relationships


FATHERS AND SONS, by LIZ ROSENBERG    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: His boys are so embarrassed they can hardly stand it
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Basketball


FOR HIS FATHER, by WILLIAM MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I was young I looked high and low for a father
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Morris
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


FOR MY FATHER, DEAD AT FIFTY-SIX, ON MY FIFTY-SIXTH BIRTHDAY, by STANLEY PLUMLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I watched you humble a man in a fight once
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Death; Childhood Memories; Dead, The


FOR MY SON JOHN, by JOHN CIARDI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Jonnel, this is for you -- my river-saint-named
Last Line: The first life and the first and still the first
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


FOUR POEMS FOR A CHILD SON / DECEMBER 18, 1972: IT WAS THE THIRD DAY, JULY 12 , 1971, by SIMON J. ORTIZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hitchhiking on the way to colorado
Last Line: Look, the stones with voices
Subject(s): Native Americans; Hitchhikers; Fathers & Sons


FOURTH BOOK OF AIRS: TO JOHN MOUNSON, SON AND HEIR TO SIR THOMAS, by THOMAS CAMPION    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On you th' affections of your fathers friends
Last Line: On each side placing you as near my heart!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Friendship


FREEDOM, by LUCILE ENLOW    Poem Text                    
First Line: Observe the son stampede
Last Line: Until he dies.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Revolutions


FUNDAMENTALISM, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because the eye has a short shadow or
Last Line: He would not follow his father into war
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


GATHERING THE BONES TOGETHER; FOR PETER ORR, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When all the rooms of the house
Last Line: That arches toward the other shore.
Subject(s): Brothers; Death; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Fratricide; Hunting; Half-brothers; Dead, The; Relatives; Hunters


GOD AND MY COUNTRY, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He had the bluest eyes I ever saw
Last Line: "to get some cigarettes and some shaving blades."
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Soldiers; World War I; First World War


GOD LOVES YOU, AND SO DO I, by MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Because it is what he says always, to anyone
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


HE WROTE THE HISTORY BOOK,' IT SAID, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There! You shed a ray
Last Line: Your father's autograph.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; History; Historians


HIS EXAMPLE, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are little eyes upon you, and they're watching
Last Line: For the little boy who's waiting to grow up to be like you.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


HUSH, by DAVID ST. JOHN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The way a tired chippewa woman
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


I WILL GO WITH MY FATHER A-PLOUGHING, by JOSEPH CAMPBELL                        Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Ultach; Maccathmhaoil, Seosamh
Subject(s): Plowing & Plowen; Fathers & Sons


IF THERE'S A GOD..., by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If there's a god of amphetamine, he's also the god of wrecked
Last Line: "laughing at all who stumble. Put out your tongue and receive it."
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; God; Medicine; Unfaithfulness; Dead, The; Drugs, Prescription; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


IN DEDICATION OF 'THE CERTAIN HOUR', by JAMES BRANCH CABELL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sad hours and glad hours, and all hours, pass over
Last Line: Love for his son.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


IN DREAM TIME, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear tomasito
Last Line: Just had a last fall
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


IN MEMORIAM: PRIVATE D. SUTHERLAND, by ALAN MACKINTOSH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So you were david's father
Last Line: But I was your officer.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackintosh, Ewart Alan
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Death; Fathers & Sons; Leadership; Military; Soldiers; Sons; War; Dead, The


IN THE HIGH COUNTRY, by DAVID ST. JOHN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Some days I am happy to be no one
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


IN THE MORNING, by BURGES JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Reggalerly every day, / when my papa's gotten up
Last Line: Puttin' prickers in my chin.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Shaving


IN THIS AGE OF HARD TRYING, NONCHALANCE IS GOOD AND, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Really, it is not the
Last Line: Of manner, best bespeak that weapon, self protectiveness.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons (turgenev)


IPHIGENIA AT AULIS, by EURIPIDES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Had I the voice of orpheus, o my sire
Last Line: Life is more precious than the noblest death!
Subject(s): Euripides (484-406 B.c.); Fathers & Sons; Murder


JOSEPH'S LAMENT, by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My boy, my boy, and art thou dead?
Last Line: My murdered boy! ... Woe, woe is me!
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; Murder; Trees; Dead, The


LITTLE POPEET: THE LOST CHILD, by WILLIAM MCGONAGALL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Near by the silent waters of the mediterranean
Last Line: And lived happy with his father for many a day.
Subject(s): Disappeared Persons; Fathers & Sons; Missing Persons


LORD ROBERTS, by GEORGE MURRAY (1830-1910)    Poem Text                    
First Line: He came, he saw, he conquered; though his heart
Last Line: The idol of his country and his queen.
Subject(s): England; Fathers & Sons; Roberts, Frederick Sleigh (1832-1914); Soldiers; English


LOST CHILDHOOD, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How was it possible, I a father
Last Line: My own lost childhood
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


LOVE'S PHOTOGRAPH (OR FATHER AND SON), by JAMES SCHUYLER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Detected little things: a peach-pit
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Photography & Photographs


MEN WITHOUT, by TIMOTHY LIU    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father is a coward, and I have grown
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Cowardice; Fathers & Sons; Love; Estrangement; Outcasts


MINUS ONE, by JOHN CIARDI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Of seven sparrows on a country wire
Last Line: Hawk in this now? Unchosen? Come to choose?
Subject(s): Sparrows; Hawks; Fathers & Sons


MOVING AGAIN, by WILLIAM MATTHEWS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At night the mountains look like huge
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, William Procter
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Divorce


MY FATHER AND I, by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR.    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My father prayed as he drew a bead on the graycoats
Last Line: What is the matter?
Alternate Author Name(s): Clark, Badger
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; God; Murder; Prayer; War


MY FATHER'S CORPSE, by ANDREW HUDGINS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He lay stone still, pretended to be dead
Last Line: To have the resurrected bastard back
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


MY FATHER'S FINGERNAILS, by ROBERT WRIGLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the hardware store a young clerk
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


NO MAP, by STEPHEN DOBYNS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How close the clouds press this october first
Last Line: Showing the dark places and how to escape them?
Subject(s): Surgery; Fathers & Sons; Birthdays


ODYSSEUS TO TELEMACHUS, by JOSEPH BRODSKY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: My dear telemachus,
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


OIL & STEEL, by HENRI COLE            Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


PASSAGES, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They come in in tiny boats
Last Line: We must not look back
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Stones; Granite; Rocks


PATERNITY, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Not only women dream the future's child
Last Line: And all my being yearned: my son! My son!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


PENCIL STUB JOURNALS: PARENTHOOD, by JOHN CIARDI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My son was insolent to me
Last Line: I hit him: libery is to defend
Subject(s): Discipline; Fathers & Sons


PETITION OF A SCHOOLBOY TO HIS FATHER, by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Most honour'd sir, I must confess
Last Line: And your petitioner shall pray.
Alternate Author Name(s): Aikin, Anna Letitia
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Money; Schools; Poetry & Poets; Students


PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, by ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the front yard, my father and his son
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Baseball


PLEASING DAD, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I was but a little lad, not more than two or three
Last Line: That he may claim the old-time joy of being proud of me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


POEM, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I hear a heavy knocking
Last Line: Is coming home
Subject(s): Children; Fathers & Sons; Love; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood


POEM FOR MY FATHER, by QUINCY TROUPE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Father, it was an honor to be there, in the dugout
Last Line: Father, a harbinger, of shock waves, soon come
Subject(s): African Americans; Baseball; Fathers & Sons; Sports; Negroes; American Blacks


PROUST'S MADELEINE, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Somebody has given my
Subject(s): Card Games; Death; Fathers & Daughters; Fathers & Sons; Proust, Marcel (1871-1922); Playing Cards; Dead, The


RABBI BEN HISSAR, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Rabbi ben hissar rode one day
Last Line: "'I thank thee, lord,' was all he said"
Subject(s): Clergy;death;fathers & Sons;jews; "priests;rabbis;ministers;bishops;dead, The;judaism;


READING A STORY TO MY CHILD, by PRIMUS ST. JOHN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is a small boy
Last Line: In a ragged coat.
Subject(s): Children; Fathers & Sons; Parents; Slavery; Childhood; Parenthood; Serfs


RIVERLIGHT, by FRANK STANFORD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father and I lie down together.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Death; Dead, The


SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION, by TONY HOAGLAND    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And when we were eight, or nine,
Last Line: Down into the belly of the world
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Conduct Of Life; Disappointment


SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 1, by YEHUDA AMICHAI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Mr. Beringer, whose son / fell at the canal that strangers dug
Last Line: That drift away
Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Fathers & Sons; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict


SHADOW-CASTING, by JAMES GALVIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This boy's father dies. / fine. / it always happens. / the boy knows
Last Line: This boy, it always happens, doesn’t know what to do anymore
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; Fish & Fishing; Life; Sports; Dead, The; Anglers


SHORE LINE, by CARL RAKOSI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We speak of mankind.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rawley, Callmann
Subject(s): Waves; Boats & Boating; Fathers & Sons


SHOULDERS, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A man crosses the street in rain
Last Line: The rain will never stop falling.
Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Fathers & Sons; Peace; Nuclear Freeze


SNOW, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once with my scarf knotted over my mouth
Last Line: The son! Before the weather changes.
Subject(s): Cold; Fathers & Sons; Relationships; Snow; Weather


SONG TO MY SON, by RICHARD DEHMEL    Poem Text                    
First Line: About my father's house, - the gale
Last Line: Beats—
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


STOW-ON-THE-WOLD, by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I met an old man at stow-on-the-wold
Last Line: "and each was a tall and a lively lad."
Subject(s): Death - Children; Fathers & Sons; Soldiers; Sons; War; Death - Babies


STUDY IN BLACK & WHITE, by PAUL MARIANI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Seven days a week, six till ten,
Subject(s): Automobiles - Service Stations; Fathers & Sons; Childhood Memories; Friendship; Gasoline Stations; Filling Stations; Automobile Repair Shops


SWIMMING POOL, by RALPH BURNS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We dropped rubber bricks to the bottom
Last Line: To his scalp but finned at top
Subject(s): Swimming & Swimmers; Fathers & Sons


TAKE IT FROM FATHER, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Son, I haven't much to tell you; I have
Last Line: Don't you ever try to argue with a cop!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE ALIEN BOY, by MARY DARBY ROBINSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas on a mountain, near the western main
Last Line: By the wide world forgotten!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Solitude; Loneliness


THE ANNIVERSARY, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the night I come to my room
Last Line: The flesh of his forehead, and old scar.
Subject(s): Anniversaries; Fathers & Sons; Memory; Scars; World War Ii; Second World War


THE BEAR AND THE MAN, by ROBERT BLY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Suppose there were a bear and a man. The bear
Last Line: Coming from far up there, near the north pole.
Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Fathers & Sons; Knowledge


THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: HE COMETH FORTH INTO THE DAY, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "I am here, I have traversed the tomb, I behold thee"
Last Line: "in the beautiful world by the bright lake of horus, / riseth the day"
Subject(s): Death;fathers & Sons;heaven; "dead, The;paradise;


THE BOY SOLDIER, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Each evening on my lap there climbs
Last Line: Just as he captured me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Games; Recreation; Pastimes; Amusements


THE CHRISTMAS RIFLE, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Over the spine of the ridge
Last Line: The weight of his hand comes down on my shoulder.
Subject(s): Christmas Gifts; Fathers & Sons; Hunting; Rifles; Hunters


THE DEATH OF MATTAHIAS, by ROBERT SOUTHEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sons of my age, attend
Last Line: Hope lifts my soul to thee.
Subject(s): Christianity; Clergy; Death; Fathers & Sons; Legacies; Mysticism; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops; Dead, The


THE DESK, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the fire escape, crouched, one knee in cinders
Last Line: To own my father's name.
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Fathers & Sons; Schools; Students


THE DISCIPLE, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The times are changed, and gone the day
Last Line: In that fear doubteth thee.
Subject(s): Christianity; Doubt; Education; Faith; Fathers & Sons; God; Humility; Skepticism; Belief; Creed


THE DOOR CLICKS. HE RETURNS TO ME', by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Is it measureless pain?
Subject(s): Veterans; Homecoming; Marriage; Fathers & Sons


THE DREAM SONGS: 145, by JOHN BERRYMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Also I love him: me he's done no wrong
Last Line: Trying to make yourself forgive someone for something so unforgiveable
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, John, Jr.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Suicide


THE ESSENTIAL STORY, by CHARLIE SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We each wanted our own story, my father and I
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Stories


THE EXHAUSTED BUG; FOR MY FATHER, by ROBERT BLY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is a tiny., hard-shelled thing. He is the length of a child's tooth, and
Last Line: Father stretched out in his coffin.
Subject(s): Beetles; Curiosities & Wonders; Death; Fathers & Sons; Insects; Enigmas; Oddities; Dead, The; Bugs


THE FATHER, by CARL RAKOSI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I find among my notes
Last Line: Where to, mistress quickly?
Alternate Author Name(s): Rawley, Callmann
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE FATHER OF THE MAN, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I can't help thinkin' o' the lad!
Last Line: My boy has made a man o' me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE FATHER, SON AND HOLY GHOSTS, by ESSEX HEMPHILL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We are not always
Last Line: We both use it. / precisely. Often.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE FATHERS, by SIEGFRIED SASSOON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Snug at the club two fathers sat
Last Line: These impotent old friends of mine.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War


THE FINEST FELLOWSHIP, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There may be finer pleasures than just tramping with your boy
Last Line: I spend it in the open with that little lad o' mine.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE FIRST BREAK, by ALEXANDER ANDERSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The first break in our happy household hearth
Last Line: Close by his rest, they thunder day by day.
Alternate Author Name(s): Surfaceman
Subject(s): Accidents; Death - Children; Fathers & Sons; Railroads; Death - Babies; Railways; Trains


THE HILLS OF RUEL, by WILLIAM SHARP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Over the hills and far away
Last Line: Honey-sweet folk of the hills of ruel.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Death; Fairies; Fathers & Sons; Fear; Ireland; Lutes; Story-telling; Dead, The; Elves; Irish


THE KEEPER'S SON, by ANDRE THEURIET    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Black is the night and as though in fight
Last Line: The son of the keeper had breathed his last!
Subject(s): Death - Children; Family Life; Fathers & Sons; Poaching; Death - Babies; Relatives


THE LAST THING I SAY, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To a thirteen-year-old sleeping
Last Line: A small part of himself and sweet dreams.
Subject(s): Children; Fathers & Sons; Love; Parents; Sleep; Childhood; Parenthood


THE LOST SON, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At woodlawn I heard the dead cry
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE MOTHS: 1. CIRCA 1952, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Indians stood on a hill in bath and watched
Last Line: Into tomorrow.
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; Knowledge; Moths; Native Americans; Pilgrimages & Pilgrims; Women; Dead, The; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


THE OLD BARK HUT, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: In an old bark hut on the mountainside
Last Line: And broken a woman's heart
Subject(s): Crimes & Criminals;death;family Life;fathers & Sons;hunting;waiting; "dead, The;relatives;hunters;


THE OLD MAN DREW THE LINE, by CARL RAKOSI    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Rawley, Callmann
Subject(s): Old Age; Fathers & Sons


THE ORPHAN, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It has been along time
Last Line: -- no one with whom he could cry
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE PERUVIAN'S DIRGE OVER THE BODY OF HIS FATHER, by ROBERT SOUTHEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rest in peace, my father, rest
Last Line: Where the strangers never shall come!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Funerals; Future Life; Lament; Peru; Prayer; Burials; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


THE POEMS OF COLD MOUNTAIN: 108, by HAN SHAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mister shih had two sons
Last Line: Like buckteeth that never meet
Alternate Author Name(s): Kanzan; Hanshan; Han-shan
Subject(s): Chinese Literature; Fathers & Sons; Success


THE PRODIGAL SON, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I went back for redress
Last Line: In setting him adrift
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE QUEST, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the beginning, I was the termite on the tree
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Fathers & Sons; Knowledge


THE REMAINS, by TIMOTHY LIU    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Walking out of the new cemetery, my father
Last Line: My eighty-year-old father nodding off into sleep
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Ancestry & Ancestors; Cemeteries


THE TALK; FOR MY FATHER, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How many years we've circled round this date
Last Line: And talk at last, though all our talk's too late.
Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fathers & Sons; Fear; Procrastination; Talk


THE TIME COMES WHEN YOU ARE FACING HIM, by DAVID IGNATOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: And it is like the moment before going into battle
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE WHIP-POOR-WILL, by HENRY VAN DYKE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Do you remember, father
Last Line: "a passing thrill, -- ""whippoorwill!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Civis Americanus
Subject(s): Birds; Fathers & Sons; Whipporwills


THE WISH, by BOB HICOK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On a tuesday I learned I'd never sit
Last Line: This man was
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


THE WITCH, by ROBERT SOUTHEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Father! Here, father! I have found a horse-shoe
Last Line: She may recover; so drive t'other nail in!
Subject(s): Christianity; Curses; Fathers & Sons; Horseshoes; Witchcraft & Witches


TO AN ADOLESCENT WEEPING WILLOW, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I don't know what you think you're doing
Last Line: It means you are a boy.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Grief; Willow Trees; Youth; Sorrow; Sadness


TO HIS SON, by WALTER RALEIGH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Three things there be that prosper up apace
Last Line: It frets the halter, and it chokes the child
Alternate Author Name(s): Ralegh, Walter
Variant Title(s): The Wood, The Wool, The Wag;the Wood, The Weed, The Wag;sir Walter Ralegh To His Son
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; Dead, The


TO M. LE VAYER ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON, by MOLIERE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Weep on le vayer, make thine eyes an urn
Last Line: And for these things we must for ever weep.
Alternate Author Name(s): Poquelin, Jean Baptiste
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Sons; Loss; Dead, The


TO MY FATHER, by GEORGE MACDONALD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Take of the first fruits, father, of thy care
Last Line: Revealed man's glory, god's great human heart.
Subject(s): Children; Christianity; Fathers & Sons; God; Poetry & Poets; Childhood


TO MY FATHER'S BUSINESS, by KENNETH KOCH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Leo bends over his desk
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Careers


TO MY SON, by THOMAS HOOD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou happy, happy elf!
Last Line: I cannot write unless he's sent above.)
Variant Title(s): To My Infant Son;a Parental Ode To My Son, Aged Three Years And Five Months;to My Son, Aged Three Years And Five Months;parental Ode To My [infant] Son
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


TO THE BOY, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have no wish, my little lad
Last Line: Twas all worth while to be your dad.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


TO TONY - AGED THREE (IN MEMORY T.P.C.W.), by MARJORIE WILSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Gemmed with white daisies was the great green world
Last Line: To win that heritage of peace you have.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Wilson, T.p. Cameron (1889-1918); Women And War; World War I - Casualties


TO WILLIAM CRAIG, ON THE DEATH OF AN ONLY SON IN A RAILWAY ACCIDENT, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas drear november; by the turbid tide
Last Line: "to meet, and dwell with him in ""heaven our home."
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Accidents; Death; Fathers & Sons; God; Heaven; Mourning; Sons; Tragedy; Dead, The; Paradise; Bereavement


TORRISMOND; AN UNFINISHED DRAMA, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who has seen torrismond, my son, to-night?
Last Line: Torris. Then here's an end of life.
Subject(s): Abandonment; Betrayal; Courts & Courtiers; Fathers & Sons; Longing; Love; Loyalty; Pleasure; Politics & Government; Desertion; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens


TREETOPS, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My father moves through the south hunting duck
Last Line: Probable volume of dreams, think so.
Subject(s): Death; Ducks; Fathers & Sons; Hunting; Dead, The; Mallards; Drakes; Hunters


WAREHOUSE WORK, by VIRGIL SUAREZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I turned fourteen, my father said
Last Line: Work means will carry me through, us, them
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Labor & Laborers


WAX FATHER, by NICK FLYNN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Each day / the son came for more, scraping comb
Last Line: His entire body hung there
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Sickness; Waxworks; Illness


WHAT BRINGS US OUT, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Something about pumpkins caused
Last Line: How fast you had to turn to make it move.
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Fear; Pumpkins


WHAT EFFECT HAS YOUR NEW SON HAD ON YOUR WRITING LIFE?, by RICHARD JONES    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: While andrew sleeps
Last Line: Andrew wants his bottle.
Subject(s): Children; Fathers & Sons; Parents; Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers; Childhood; Parenthood


WHAT MY FATHER BELIEVED, by ROBERT WRIGLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Man of his age, he believed in the things
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Teaching & Teachers; Patriotism; Educators; Professors


WHEN FATHER PLAYED BASEBALL, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The smell of arnica is strong
Last Line: The day he played baseball.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Baseball; Fathers & Sons; Sports


WHEN SONS AND FATHERS PART, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You're going, son, the world to face
Last Line: And, oh, remember us!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


WILL, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Your face, my boy, when six months old
Last Line: And more than father, will!
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons


WINTER NIGHT ON THE YENTNA RIVER, by ARLITIA JONES    Poem Text                    
First Line: If the lives we live depend on the stories we tell
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Winter


WINTER STARS, by LARRY LEVIS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Aging; Courage; Stars; Sickness; Valor; Bravery; Illness


WORKING LATE, by LOUIS SIMPSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A light is on in my father's study
Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Law & Lawyers


YOU TAUGHT ME, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: All those years, alone
Last Line: I didn't even know my name!
Subject(s): Children; Fathers; Fathers & Sons; Love; Parents; Sons; Childhood; Parenthood


YOU WOULD KNOW, by MARVIN BELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That you, father, are 'in my mind'
Last Line: What I was, happy, maybe am, you would know.
Subject(s): Escapes; Fathers & Sons; Happiness; Past; Fugitives; Joy; Delight