Elegy for my father's father

Question	Answer
Thesis	Through the depiction of a troubled family relationship, Baxter presents the impact of immigration upon individuals who can not be true to their beliefs or cultural values and are neglected in society. Baxter depicts his grandfather’s solitary life by portraying his love for nature and disregard for other humans in his independent life
Structure	Irregular rhyme scheme reflected how immigrants in his country was not fully able to express themselves and had to deal with multiple hardships in life. - there was no consistency
Diction	However, the poem also pays tribute to his strength and endurance. These images are directly followed by the description of him ‘old and blind’, sitting ‘All day’. The suddenness of the contrast emphasises the gulf between his prime and his old age. The poem also suggest, that despite his failure to express feelings, he was sensitive to his experiences of the natural world around him. The narrator finally conjectures that his grandfather’s keen awareness of the cycle of life enabled him to be ‘unafraid’ of death.
Themes/Toned	Very dull and slow, death memories, family relationships, immigration/ solitary life/ individual beliefs.
Figurative Language	An aaron's rod and blossom. They stood by the graveside. From his bitter veins born And mourned him in their fashion. Personification Shows that only the flowers that surrounded his grandfather’s grave truly mourned him because he didn’t really communicate with anyone else

Resource summary

	Created by aditi bansal about 8 years ago