The poet is speaking about the presence of his father and how that molded his entire life. He never knew him because he committed suicide before he was born;however his entire life, he felt the absence of his father through all the emotions his mother carried around with her. He...
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recalls an incident when he carried a portrait of his father down from the attic and his mother grabbed it from him and tore it to shreds. He is 64 when he wrote the poem and still feels pain about his father.
This poem is a tribute to the reality that the unlived life or unexpressed emotions(anger) of a parent can be passed onto his or her child, unknowingly. It is as if the "sins of the father" are visited on his son. His father killed himself; but he also killed his son.