Answer: Appreciation of ‘Father Returning Home’ by Dilip Chitre, written in paragraph form under the usual points.
About the poem / poet / title : ‘Father Returning Home’ is written by Dilip Chitre, a well-known Indian poet, painter and translator who wrote in Marathi and English. The title describes the daily return journey of an ageing father from work to home, and through it the poet shows the father’s loneliness.
Theme : The poem deals with the alienation and loneliness of an old man in a busy city. The father travels in a crowded local train among silent commuters, tired, wet and muddy, unaware of the suburbs passing by. His shabby clothes, worn-out bag and dim eyes show his weariness and his separation from the world around him.
Poetic style : The poem is written in free verse; it has no regular rhyme scheme or metre. It reads like a quiet, realistic description of a scene from Mumbai’s suburban life, told by the son as an observer.
Language / poetic devices : The language is simple and the images are vivid: ‘yellow light’, ‘grey platform’, ‘humid monsoon night’, ‘chappals … sticky with mud’. Devices used include the simile ‘Like a word dropped from a long sentence’ (the father is as insignificant and unnoticed as a word dropped from a sentence), imagery in ‘silent commuters in the yellow light’ and ‘unseeing eyes’, which shows his tiredness and isolation, personification in ‘Suburbs slide past’ and alliteration in ‘stained … stuffed’.
Message / values / morals : The poem makes us aware of the loneliness of elderly people, who work hard for their families but are often ignored. It reminds us to give our parents and the old the love, attention and respect they deserve.
Your opinion about the poem : I like the poem because its realistic images make the scene come alive. The simile of the dropped word is very touching, and the poem made me think about how I treat my own parents.
