A father sees a son nearing manhood.
What shall he tell that son?
'Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.'
And this might stand him for the storms
and serve him for humdrum and monotony
and guide him amid sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.
'Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.'
And this too might serve him.
Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.
The growth of a frail flower in a path up
has sometimes shattered and split a rock.
A tough will counts. So does desire.
So does a rich soft wanting.
Without rich wanting nothing arrives.
Tell him too much money has killed men
And left them dead years before burial:
The quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs
Has twisted good enough men
Sometimes into dry thwarted worms.
Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a fool every so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies
thus arriving at intimate understanding
of a world numbering many fools.

Tell him to be alone often and get at himself
and above all tell himself no lies about himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use amongst other people.
Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural.
    Then he may understand Shakespeare
    and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
    Michael Faraday and free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
    He will be lonely enough
    to have time for the work
    he knows as his own.
        -From 'The People, Yes' Carl Sandburg

Listen

Langston Hughes'
Mother to Son

---

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Listen to the poem.

Both Carl Sandburg's, "A Father To His Son" and Langston Hughes', "Mother To Son", each poet uses metaphors in telling a story of parental figures explaining the idea of life and it's hardships to their son. To breakdown "life", and have their sons understand it clearly, the mother and father use metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a phrase is used to make a comparison, thus giving a better understanding. In "A Father To His Son", line three, "Life is hard; be steel; be a rock"; Sandburg has the father tell his son to be 'steel' and 'a rock'. We know, steel is a strong metal, and a rock is tough and isn't easily broken down. Telling his son to be these things refers to the father asking him to be a strong person because life is tough. In contrast line eight, "Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy". Sandburg compares life to a loam, loam in itself is a soft soil. comparing life to 'soil', informs the son of how fragile life really is and that he should take it easy. In Langston Hughes', "Mother To Son", line two; "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair." Comparing life to a crystal stair represents a 'clear' path, full of ease, and no hardships. In lines 12 and 13, "And sometimes goin' in the dark ; where there ain't been no light." Going in the 'dark' and places with no light represent the bad moments in life. Darkness is commonly used in poem representing depression, as in this poem. The absence of light represents the times in life with no clarity, things that one must work through in the dark.

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© Dariles Castillo 2010