To a Son
What Shall He Tell That Son?
Carl Sandburg
A father sees a son nearing manhood.
What shall he tell that son?
'Life is hard; be steel; be arock.'
And this might stand him for the storms
and serve him for humdrum and monotony
and guide him amid sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.
'Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.'
And this too might serve him.
Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.
The growth of a frail flower in a path up
has sometimes shattered and split a rock.
A tough will counts. So does desire.
So does a rich soft wanting.
Without rich wanting nothing arrives.
Tell him too much money has killed men
And left them dead years before lucre beyond a few easy needs
Has twisted good enough men
Sometimes into dry thwarted worms.
Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a every so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies
thus arriving at intimate understanding
of a world numbering many fools.
Tell him to be alone
often and get at himself
and above all tell himself no lies about himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use amongst other people.
Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural.
Then he may understandShakespeare
and The Wright brothers, Pasteur,Pavlov,
Michael Faraday and free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work
he knows as his own.
-From 'The People, Yes'Carl Sandburg
Langston Hughes'
Mother to Son
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin'landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't youg turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
Metaphor is the comparison of two UNLIKE things. In "What Shall He Tell That Son?" by Carl Sandburg he says 'Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.'
meaning that life is hard and will not be easy. He shows how life can be easy and simple by saying "'Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.'
but it can also go wrong if dealt with the wrong way. Money can bring about trouble and failure so he said to his son
"Tell him too much money
has killed men
And left them dead years before lucre beyond a few easy needs
Has twisted good enough men Sometimes into dry thwarted worms."
Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son" has a very distinguished way of using metaphors. He first starts with "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair."
meaning that he his life hasn't been an easy clear path. He then extends the poem by using different metaphors to describe the obstacles he had
to face
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© Kenrich Silvera2010
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