Elegy For My Father's Father Literary Elements

The poem is narrated in third-person by an unnamed speaker.

The poem is an elegy written in free verse. It follows no strict form or regular meter, but many lines have 6 or 7 syllables.

The “tall tower broken” acts as a metaphor for the grandfather’s life to emphasize his fortitude and vigor in his lifetime. At the same time, the tower represents the emotional distance exhibited by the grandfather, as a tower might be imagined to stand isolated.

The speaker uses metaphorical language to highlight the power of nature over the fleeting human life. The "lion sun" (metaphor) demonstrates this power, though this metaphor also serves to emphasize the grandfather's strength, as he is able to do difficult work while enduring this sun.

“That his heart had never spoken”

“The stars in their drunken dancing”

"The winter world in their hand."

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Elegy

The poem is predominantly set outdoors at different stages of the grandfather’s life, in death, old age, and childhood.

Mournful; Regretful; Celebratory

The protagonist of the poem is the grandfather. The antagonist is his inability and failure to express his emotions.

The speaker's grandfather realizes while on his deathbed that he never connected with his loved ones or expressed his emotions throughout his life.

Before his death, the grandfather recalls his emotional childhood and reaches the painful truth that his heart had never spoken.

The refrain that his heart had never spoken foreshadows the final line, in which his heart accepts death, and the grandfather is able to die without fear.

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The poem makes Biblical references in the statement “Boughs of heaven,” which refers to the idea of the afterlife and the cycle of life, and the flower "aaronsrod," which is an allusion to the Biblical Aaron's staff.

The phrase “…dark mouths of the dead” alludes to the expression “jaws of death” from Lord Tennyson's 1854 poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade."

The phrase “…his heart had never spoken” is a metonymy for he never spoke his heart.

The speaker personifies the grandfather’s heart by stating it never spoke. It reflects the lack of sharing emotions with his kinfolk throughout his life. Water is personified with the ability to speak in the line “The tongues of water spoke.”

The speaker uses hyperbolic language to describe the grandfather as a “tall tower” and the heat as “lion sun.”

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