FOR MY FATHER- SHABBIR BANNOBAI

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shabbir Bannobai is a South African poet born in Durban on 23rd October 1949. A
product of the protest poetry era. Most of his poems follow uncontroventional
structure. He wrote poems by his own definition.

Bannobhai studied teaching at Spring Field College, because he could not afford
university education. In 1970, while at the college, he was elected president of SRC.
He later became the assistant editor of Aspect, the college newspaper. Due to its
tone in relation to apartheid system, the paper experienced a number of bans. It was
at Springfield College that he met anti-apartheid struggle icon, Fatima Meer . She
advised him to meet with poet Douglas Livingstone to sharpen his poetry writing
skills.

He desire for a university education never diminished and he was able to find time to
study for Bachelor of Commence Degree through distance learning institution Unisa.
The degree helped him to work as an accountant after a short period in teaching
because he wanted a space that would allow him to promote a vision of more human
society- a society that not only respects its members as human beings but which
considers them as spiritual beings and essentially divine.

Pre-Reading

What role do our father play in our lives?

What is your father like? And your grandfather?

TITTLE ANALYSIS
The poem “For my father” is a dedicationto the speaker’s father. The speaker
actually says that “this is for my father”. As the father is no longer alive, this would be
the speaker’s way of elegising about the father. In an elegy the speaker expresses
grief or sadness over the loss of something. The title tells us that the poem is about
the father , although we only find out later that the father is dead.

SUMMARY OF THE POEM

The speaker talks about his father’s life in “days and night”, from childhood to late
adulthood and eventually death. Although the speaker was obviously born years
after the father was born, he knows the father’s childhood and youth days. This
shows how close the two were as this information would have been passed from
father to child. The father lived a simple life, doing all thing a boy are expected to do,
like visiting towns, village and the bush areas, and playing with noisy whips. Later, as
a young adult the father began to work in the fields to feed his family. Then the aging
period, associated with night came. The father became weak and was looked after
by the wife and child. Unfortunately, night come with death. The father died in the
care of his family. The poet follows a simple narrative form but well-structured and
easy to follow. The language is accessible but appropriate enough to express the
sense of loss the speaker feels about the death of his father.

The poem is therefore an expression of the loss the speaker feels about the death of
his father from natural causes associated with aging.

STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

The poem has 27 lines divided into 9 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is further
divided into two main parts of “days (first 6 stanzas, in line 1-18) and “nights
(last 3 stanzas, from 19-27)”. The “days” section is longer. Naturally human life is
longerduring the time of activity called “daytime”. One should do his/her work
during the day so that when time comes, there is little left to finish up. The “night”
part is shorter, with only three stanzas.

The lines of the poem are of unequal length with second line in each stanza
indented into the poem (slanting inward). There are no punctuation marks
used throughout the poem. The poem is a free verse, with no definite rhyme
scheme. The use of onomatopoeia lends a musical effect to the poem. It has
several settings identifiable by the activity taking place in the stanza.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

The poem is divided into 9 stanza, each showing a progression from one level to
another.

STANZA 1

The first stanza opens with the word “days” , signifying the beginning, the daylight
of the father;s life. When the father was young, he walked carelessly and confidently
(‘roughshod’) in the urban areas (town), rural areas (villages) and in the expansive
fields (“countryside”). He had the freedom to do what he wanted. He had his way.

STANZA 2

The second stanza is about the father’s childhood. The father obviously asked for a
radio from his father ( the speaker’s grandfather ), who though took long, but finally
fulfilled his promise. The child (now father) was so delighted that his laughter
changed his faces as he could not hide his happiness. The phrase “the laughter of
the child rippled in his eyes” is a metaphor that compares the child’s laughter with
water, whose waves permeate the eyes so that his joy is felt everywhere. The
explosive “p” sound in “rippled” creates the musical effect, elevating his joy to
ecstasy.

STANZA 3

The third stanza refers to a tolerant mother. When father was still a child, he made a
lot of noise (“cracked the whip of exuberance”) but the mother was tolerant because
she felt that he was like any other child, merely playing. The word “exuberance”
emphasises the energy with which whip was cracked. The line “for she knew he
was young” suggests that she was not permissive but tolerant of the child’s healthy
activities. The explosive “c” sound in “cracked” is onomatopoeic and suggest the
intensity of the sound.

STANZA 4

The fourth stanza is about father’s manhood. As a boy he was protected by the
presence of the parents and freedom of boyhood. There was sudden change
(“blast”) from boyhood to manhood, like a bomb exploding and releasing the man
from the boy. In becoming a man, father would have been overwhelmed since this
seemed to have come unexpectedly, like a bomb that cracks in his face.

STANZA 5

As a man, father is suddenly saddled with responsibility of providing food for his
family. He wetted his hands with saliva (“spat on his hands”) so that he has a firm
grip on the plough. It must not slip from his hands as he cultivates the soil to produce
food. Having planted the food producing seeds, he like everyone else, wait for the
rain to come (“watched the sky for rain”)

STANZA 6

In stanza 6 the father is in the twilight of his years. He is about to enter to the dark
stage as he is now cared for by his family (wife and child) as he no longer do certain
things that he used to do on his own. He need family members by his side as they
provide him with the fire he liked so much. He now needs the intervention of family
members to assist him in doing what he once proud to do on his own. The lines
“when wife and child/sat by his side” means that he can no longer sit properly on
his own and therefore needs support structures to lean on. He is sick and frail.

STANZA 7

Stanza 7 is the first of the “nights” stanzas. This is the turning point of the poem.
The spakers now addresses his father from a distance . unlike in the first 6 stanzas,
where the speaker was talking progressively in second to third person narrative form,
he now uses the second person narrative form.
“Night has arrived and father seems to have lost the will to live. The moon shines
brightly outside but not cheer him up even though his face is illuminated by the light
from the moon”

STANZA 8

There is sense that the father did not make it. He died. Wife and son have been
supporting him, holding his hands for support and even tried to assist him breathing,
but failed.

STANZA 9

In the end father loses the light for his life as he fades away (“flattered”). They were
holding him tightly, thinking he might make it, but they were unsuccessful. Life is a
struggle. It is an uphill struggle “hill” and the father lost his will to go up the hill. His
soul escaped “slipped away” from them.

The old man died in the presence of his wife and child.

THEMES OF THE POEM

Loss/death: The speaker believes that death is ultimate destination and there is
nothing we can do to stop it.

Aging: Aging is part of life and it has many stages with loss of strength and the
depth as the final stages.

Caring/love: Wife and child have been very supportive to father during his last
stages, caring for him until his last breath.

Course of life: While death can come anytime, there is a sense of acceptance when
one dies at an advanced age, having gone through all the stages of life.

Although the poem uses simple language, there are words and phrases that have
figurative language meanings. Few examples are given below.

METAPHOR: In “When you roughshod your way” line 2, the speaker compares
walking with uncaring attitude. The boy walks everywhere uncaringly but in an
innocent way.

HYPERBOLE: In the words “the laughter of the child rippled in his eyes” line 6,
the speaker iexaggerates the effect of the boy’s happiness on his face, as if it is
waves covering his face.

ONOMATOPOEIA: In the phrase “cracked the whip” in line 7, The explosive

sound of the “c” imitates the sound that the whip makes as the boy swings it.
Youthfulness is explosive.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: The prase “Spat on his hands” line 13, is a
figurative language meaning ready to tackle task.

LITERAL LANGUAGE: the word “lit the fire” line 18, means that the wife and
child actually lit real fire to keep him warm.

OXYMORON/ANTITHETHIS: The following expression, seemed dull against your

bright, while face is oxymoron, because it appears to be self-contradictory as two
opposite scenareos are placed next to each other.

TONE
CELEBRATORY: The poem is about a simple life well lived.

SADNESS: Although the father lived almost all the stages a huma being has, the
speaker is sad that he lost his father he loved and cared so much.

FINALITY/DEFINITE/ACCEPTANCE: The speaker is content with what the family

did to care for the father in his last days. He lived a relatively fulfilling life and had lost
the will to live due to aging.