Elegy For My Father's Father Essay Questions

What is the significance of the poem's title?

The title of the poem, "Elegy for my Father's Father," reflects the distance that the speaker feels from his dead grandfather. Instead of referring to the man as his grandfather, the speaker chooses instead to illustrate the central theme of the poem by using a more technical and detached phrasing. This prepares the reader to read an elegy about someone with whom the writer was not particularly close, a strange and counterintuitive project.

Discuss the possible symbolic significance of the aaronsrod that appears in line 8.

The name of the flower "aaronsrod" is derived from the walking stick of the Biblical Aaron, who is Moses's brother. Aaron's staff, like his brother's, possesses miraculous powers. Accordingly, the aaronsrod may be taken as a way to symbolically illustrate that the speaker's grandfather had an active inner life that could not be seen based on what he outwardly expressed. As we learn later on in the poem, the grandfather had an intense connection with the natural world. This may be the symbolic "power" hidden within him, just as there is power hidden within Aaron's rod.

How does the speaker ultimately feel about his grandfather? Does the elegy condemn, praise, or do both?

The elegy depicts the speaker's undecided combination of feelings about his grandfather. He certainly criticizes his grandfather for spending his entire life without letting his heart speak. At the same time, however, he praises his grandfather's strength and deep connection with nature. The result of these contradictory feelings is a thoughtful and complex reflection on life and death that transcends simple categorization.