Summary
The poem begins with the speaker encapsulating his grandfather's life: "his heart had never spoken / In eighty years of days." Clearly, he was a reticent man, unwilling or unable to express his feelings. The grandfather realizes this in the last moments of his life, "in the hour he died." Next, the speaker goes on to describe the grandfather as he once was, a "tall tower," but states that the tower was "broken" by the inevitable realities of aging and death. We are then taken to the grandfather's funeral, where the effect of his emotional distance is fully realized. Nobody knows how to grieve him or what to feel—"Memorial is denied." His family members "mourned him in their fashion"—privately, reservedly, and likely not particularly intensely. The speaker observes elements of the natural world at the funeral, including an "unchanging cairn" and "An aaronsrod and blossom," which seem to be set alight by the playing of a bagpipe. The reader is then shown the grandfather as he was as a young man. He was strong, able to cut and place many sods in a day and carry a cherry tree under the hot sun.
Analysis
We should begin this analysis by talking about the poem's title, Elegy For My Father’s Father. Why not say "grandfather"? The most probable explanation is that this detached title illustrates the emotional distance between the grandfather and the other people in his life, including the speaker. Rather than denoting the speaker's own relationship to his subject, "father's father" displaces this relationship onto someone else. We are immediately prepared to read an elegy for someone to whom the writer of the elegy was not particularly close. As for why the speaker would want to write an elegy for this person, we are encouraged to keep reading to find out.
The speaker relies on personification to make the point that his grandfather was closed off, saying, "his heart had never spoken," though hearts cannot literally speak. This image effectively communicates the tragedy of the grandfather's situation. It is not just that he was reserved, but that he was unable or unwilling to express his deepest emotions for his entire life. This idea is emphasized by the speaker saying that his grandfather's heart never spoke "In eighty years of days," not just over the eighty years of his life. By dividing the years of the grandfather's life into days, the speaker vividly illustrates the reality of such reticence over such a long period of time.
The next couple of lines make it clear that this poem is not simply a criticism of the speaker's grandfather. He writes, "O for the tall tower broken," an expression of remorse over the life that has been lost. The use of "O" in poetry is traditionally a way to show an overflow of intense feeling. (A classic example of this being Shakespeare's famous line, "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?") Here, the "O" shows that the speaker is indeed mourning something, though it seems that he is mourning the man the grandfather used to be, not necessarily the grandfather as he was on his deathbed. The speaker uses a metaphor ("the tall tower broken") to show the strength and stature his grandfather used to possess and to emphasize the tragedy of the loss of this person.
Yet, despite how sad it is that the speaker's grandfather is gone, "Memorial is denied." We are taken next to the site of the grandfather's funeral, where the effects of his reservedness are made clear. His loved ones do not memorialize him. Instead, they mourn him privately, "in their fashion." Even this seems charitable to the speaker, as the mourners are "From his bitter veins born"—a resoundingly negative description of the grandfather. Yet, the speaker himself does mourn, and he does memorialize in the act of writing this poem. This is a paradox: "Memorial is denied," but here we find a memorial. The speaker's complex and contradictory emotions are brought to the surface between these lines.
The speaker's observations of bagpipes, flowers, and the "unchanging cairn" at the funeral are crucial elements in portraying the mixed feelings the speaker has about his grandfather. He notices profound dynamic beauty, "The pipes could set ablaze / An aaronsrod and blossom," alongside a stone cairn which never changes. This juxtaposition mirrors the speaker's understanding of his grandfather's identity as someone who had an intense inner life but was outwardly reserved and unchanging, like the stone cairn. Consequently, the speaker feels both reverence and pity for his grandfather at the same time.
In lines 12 through 17, the reader is shown the grandfather as he was as a young man. This is the most admiring section of the poem. We learn that he worked with the soil, slicing and piling sods "High as the head of a man"—a hyperbole used to illustrate his grandfather's strength and hardworking nature. Apparently, he also used to carry cherry trees—likely doing gardening work of some kind—"Under the lion sun." Here, the speaker uses a metaphor to compare the sun with a powerful lion. This is also intended to show how strong his grandfather used to be, as he was able to do backbreaking work while enduring this "lion." Note that the cherry tree is explicitly "flowering," a detail probably included to hint at a similarity between the natural world and humanity based on the conditions of life and death. Yet, while nature is cyclical, each individual human only has one chance at life. This poem suggests that we should think wisely about how we use it.
