Boy Driving His Father To Confession Essay

Question -

Choose a poem in which there is a noticeable change of mood at one or more than one point in the poem. Show how the poet conveys the change(s) of mood and discuss the importance of the change(s) to the central idea of the poem.

Seamus Heaney’s ‘Boy driving his father to confession’ is a poem with distinct changes in mood. The central idea of the poem is quite simple: the speaker and his father are very different people and struggle to understand each other. The changes of mood show the affection in their relationship as Heaney describes the ‘Four times’ in which his father was more like ‘a grown up-friend’ than a parent.

The mood at the start of the poem is quite poignant. He describes his father as having ‘paternal mail’ to protect himself with only four ‘chinks’. This emphasizes that his father is tough and proud like a knight in armour. He belongs to a past age, when ‘men were men’. He sees his father cry ‘among the men’ when his brother died, showing that he embodies a very traditional kind of masculinity.

This dark mood is contrasted in lines eight to ten: ‘I was shocked at your tears when my mother’s plane took off’ – the father gives a rare display of vulnerability. This is a poem about men and the way they bond together, and the fact that his father misses his mother so much humanizes him and lightens the tone of the poem. Yet it also continues the idea of being a knight with the suggestion of true love and chivalry – like a figure from a Romance, love is the most important thing in his father’s life. The poet creates a sense of poignancy by leaving his father ‘lonely at the barrier’.

The lighter mood continues when Heaney describes the third ‘chink’ – his father tells an ‘almost smutty story in a restaurant toilet’, which is an ‘unprecedented breakthrough’. The poet’s use of ‘almost’ emphasizes that the father hasn’t quite abandoned his stern, distant demeanour. The place, a toilet, gives another contrast to the world of knights and honour, although it is still a place where men meet. The word choice of ‘unprecedented breakthrough’ adds a witty and ironic comment on this new mood.

In the second stanza, the poet brings the poem up to date and creates a thoughtful mood by describing their current relationship. ‘Do you tell sins as I would?’ shows that he still does not know his father well but at the same time it emphasizes that they both have a relationship with God.

The poem ends on an almost playful note with the pun:

You grunt and slam the door. I watch another
Who gropes as awkwardly to know his father.

Heaney’s use of onomatopoeia with ‘grunt’ and ‘slam’ show that his father is, in some ways, the same as he has always been – rough and ready. But the ending also suggests that the poet has come to understand him. He is distant from his ‘father’, who, in a different way, is distant from the other ‘father’ – the priest, or even God himself.

This is therefore a poem with several different moods. The change in mood with each ‘chink’ that the poet witnesses in his father’s armour shows their developing relationship over many years, and this is what helps bring the poem to life.

My comment

A common poetry question: explain the changes of mood, atmosphere or tone between the different sections.

The ‘four chinks’ hold my essay together – the poem is structured around four different stories from the poet’s life, so I mention each one in turn.