Essay Questions

What is the significance of the title?

In order to fully understand the context and subtext of this poem, it is important to understand the meaning of its title. Nettles refers to weedlike plants characterized by sharp hairlike protrusions which cause stinging scratches on skin. Because of this physical property, nettle also has a secondary meaning describing circumstances which provoke someone to anger. Both definitions are applicable to the narrative as the physical nettles which harm the narrator's young son provoke the father to an outburst of violent anger which results in an attempt to destroy the plants so they cannot ever hurt the child again.

How is imagery used to portray the act of the father to cut down the weeds as an act of war?

The poem opens with the boy having already fallen into the nettles and receiving injuries. The father does not describe this event and it seems as though he did not even see it. The description of the boy begins with his coming to his parents looking for comfort and relief from the pains caused by the blistering of his skin. After soothing and calming him down, the father immediately takes action. He brings out a simple garden sling blade, but he describes himself as "honing" the edge much the way a soldier would hone the edge of a bayonet or sword. He describes his attack against the vegetation as an act of furious slashing. By the time he is done, not a single plant is left standing upright, and they have collectively been described as "fierce." This imagery serves to transform what is actually defenseless and immobile vegetation into a menacing predatory army which has been soundly defeated.

What is the lesson that the father ultimately learns after victorious battle with the nettles?

After his blade has left not a single weed standing, the goes the extra mile by burning them. The nettles really no longer offer a threat to his son, so this is more of a symbolic act than a useful one. By burning them, the father is attempting to eradicate the threat of harm posed to his son. He can bask not just in his victory over the nettles, but in the potential for protecting his boy against future harm from this same enemy. After two weeks, the nettles have regrown and are back in place. The threat has not been eradicated, after all. The poem ends with the father reconciled to the inevitable realization that he will not be able to protect his son against all dangers and threats he will face in the world.