Letters from a Father (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Mona Van Duyn
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Parents and children, Sick persons, Health, Birds, Old age or elderly people, Aging, Gifts
The six sections of the title poem of Letters from a Father record the slow growth into health and peace of an elderly couple, presumably the speaker's parents, as they find increasing pleasure in a bird feeder the speaker has given them. The voice throughout most of the poem is that of the father. Throughout, the stanzas are composed of rhymed quatrains.
In the first section, the speaker offers a long list of his pains—an ulcerated tooth, pressure sores from a leg brace, a bad prostate gland, and a bad heart. He feels ready to die. His old wife is in even worse shape:...
[The entire page is 668 words long]
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