The Best American Poetry Essay

Fathers are an essential aspect in the lives of their daughters. A father ultimately holds the responsibility of protecting their daughters, demonstrating the many duties of a man, and treating their daughters like a prize possession. The dependency that young daughters have on fathers affects their mindsets, self-esteem, and futures. In the book, Best of the Best American Poetry, a handful of the poems express the avid role of fathers in a person’s life. According to Margaret Atwood, the sonnet “Bored” portrays the regret and remembrance a young daughter has for her deceased father and shows how she realizes being bored with her father is better than not having his presence at all. Unlike the poem “Bored,” Natasha Trethewey’s “Elegy” takes a daughter down memory lane as she remembers her and her father’s fishing trips in preparation to write his eulogy. Although the poets above are greatly influenced by their father’s absence, Charles Bukowski’s “Three Oranges” indisputably displays a daughter whose dad is present but she is still negatively affected by the absence of a father figure. In today’s generation, adolescents are too busy growing up that they forget that their parents are aging as well and will eventually pass away. In the poem “Bored” the poet clearly defines the cliché “you don’t know what you have until it is gone.” Margaret Atwood begins her poem by stating “all those times I was bored/ out of my mind” which implies that she never fully appreciated her…