17 pages • 34 minutes read
William MeredithParents
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1980A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Angel and the Squirrel
The poem opens with the image of an angel and a squirrel. On their surface, these two images have nothing in common. This is purposeful, though. The idea of the two images is to show the vast scope of how unimaginable it is to be a parent if you are not one. The point here is to create the most intense comparison possible. It’s a form of hyperbole.
However, just because this is hyperbole doesn’t mean the two images are without meaning. Just as the rest of the poem deals with opposing things, so does this image. The angel is a grand symbol of innocence and purity. The squirrel is a small symbol of survival, nature, and practicality. Like how a child exists within a grand imaginative world of innocence and purity, the adult exists within the natural world where survival and practicality matter most. The similarities between the metaphorical implications of the angel and squirrel and the metaphorical qualities of the adult and child are purposeful.
The Chain and the Sea
Near the end of the poem, the speaker laments the death of parents. He says death takes not only parents, but also “the last link / of that chain” (Lines 23-24). This follows the previous stanza where the speaker says the parents’ deaths take “with them the last explanation, // how we came out of the wet sea / or wherever they got us from” (Lines 20-22). Along with the angel and squirrel in the first stanza, these are the only metaphors in the entire poem. Both the sea and the chain refer to the same thing, though. The speaker is not curious about the literal way he was born or about where humans come from; he is curious about the wisdom generations before have passed down. He refers to the chain because he sees human experience, knowledge, and wisdom as links in a never-ending chain that generations have passed down to him from the beginning of human existence. And he refers to the sea because that is where all life on earth began. So, his invocation of these images refers to the progression of time and human life, and he believes the death of his parents forever separates him from all that came before. This is a form of experience that brings about the realization of who we are and where we belong within the greater human family.
Time
Because the poem is about the progression of generations, time is key. Only with time does the child become experienced. Only with time does knowledge pass down to the next generation. Only with time do the old die and the young become old. And only with time do new generations rise to repeat the same songs of the past.
While time is not mentioned explicitly in the poem, it is present in the change from the beginning of the poem to the end. The poem begins with a child falling asleep with the comfort of his parents, and it ends with a parent coming to grips with eternal sleep (death) while his children do not understand. Only with the progression of time can this change happen.
