My Father Thought It Poem Analysis

My Father Thought it… In the poem “My Father Thought it”, Armitage talks about his struggle between father and son as the son grows up and their relationship which tried to declare his own identity. The end rhyme makes the poem easier to remember as it “sticks” in reader’s mind. Both the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “My father Thought it…” are talking about the relationship between the father and the son and remembering their father’s actions and words as a memory. The opening line of the first stanza is written in the first person, in the voice of the speaker, recalling his father’s words. The poet remembers his father’s voice and allow the reader to imagine his voice by using colloquial language …show more content…
He recalls the horrible images of the victims in the war. “In his dark room he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.” It is a metaphor that coveys the effect of war, creates an intense atmosphere; the darkness presents horror that creates tension for the readers. He thinks of all the place he has been to, places which have been torn apart by war- “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh”, and remembering all the bloodshed he has witnessed. “ All flesh is grass” is an effective contrast in the poem between what was happening in the places where the photographer has been and what is happening back home. Then it uses short sentences reinforces the seriousness the photographer views his job-“ He has a job to do.” “Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands, which do not tremble then” which “then’ and “did not” are in past tense, represents the remembrance from the past, the comparison between then and now which shows memory. “Rural England. Home again…” which readers can sense the contrasting situation of the two places. On one side where he experiences a world that is torn apart by war while the rest of the world with people who don’t even care as the matters are not directly link to …show more content…
“From the aeroplane…he earns a living and they do not care”, this shows the memory of those places depress with emotions but no matter how he feels, he cannot change the world nor stop the war from happening. The only thing he can do is to make humans see what he sees by capturing the pain in photos, to show us his memories, which make us aware of the divergence between our lives and those of the people in the photographs.
Can you remember? In terms of “Can you remember?”, it’s also talking about the writer now living in a peaceful place remembering the war, the memory of that traumatic experience. In the first stanza, Edmund Blunder uses short sentence-“ Yes, I still remember” which emphasizes that twenty years have passed but he can still remember the war, this shows the importance of this war is to him which is