The Poet's Use Of Apostrophe In My Father

In the second line of the first stanza, the speaker uses an apostrophe. The use of this apostrophe is very significant as it helps the reader to comprehend the deep connection that exists between the sequoia tree and the speaker.
Though he is burying a son, he does not explicitly say how old the son was. He instead uses imagery to let the reader know that the son he is burying was at a very tender age. This is seen in the use of words such as “Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant's birth cord/All that remains above earth of a first-born son” (13-14). At this juncture, the reader finds out that the speaker is performing a venerating symbolic burial of not just an infant son but a first born son for that matter.
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