Ode on the Whole Duty of Parents

Parenting is never an easy task. Whether in eastern or western cultures, society

has always given great honors to parents because they have been the role models

for the younger generations. In Ode on the Whole Duty of Parents, the author has

used powerful words and imagery to portray children and parents. Not only that,

the author has also strikingly convey the ways in which she addresses parents

about their duties. In this essay, we would look at the ways in which the poet

convey her thoughts and feelings in showing her wishes on parents in how to

fulfill their duties in raising children.

The author has used powerful words and imagery in describing children in the

poem Ode on the Whole Duty of Parents. He describes the children as “remote

and wise” and that they must “go free” like “fishes in the sea” or “starlings in the

skies”. In the poem, children are portrayed as free animals with complete

freedom to navigate through their lives. Young people have unlimited potential

and are shining like the stars in the skies. They are “heart distracting magic

birds” longing to fly new heights in the sky with no limits. From these powerful

imageries that the author has used to describe children, we can see that he thinks

the young generation of the society are often free, limitless, adventurous and full

of potential.
The author has also used powerful words and imagery in describing parents in

the poem. He describes the parents as “unending heights of flowering green

hangs every fruit that grows, with silver bells”. He thinks that the parents are like

a high standing tree that nurtures fruits and birds. He thinks that parents are a

nurture home for the young, weak and inexperienced. He also describes the

parents as “a sheltering shore or legendary tree in safety spread”. It shows that

the author sees parents as a shelter for the tired children back from their

adventures. The imagery of a legendary tree shows that parents often have a very

sacred and holy image, almost legendary, in the hearts of the young.

In addressing the duties of the parents to their kids, the author says that the

parents “must be suddenly near.” He says that the parents “the unstable, must

become a tree”. We can see that the author thinks that the parents must stand

firm and rigid like a standing tree providing a stable and nurturing home for the

kids. Parents must be as sturdy as a legendary tree, and branching out to reach

for the kids and be near and available to the children when care is called for and

needed. He says that the parents must “possess roots that go deep in ordinary

earth” and that they must be “strong consoling bark to love and caress”. Parents

are expected to have good anchor for the children to rely on in times of storms.

They should be strong and firm even in bad times so that the children can mature

and grow up steadily in the shelters. In the end, the author also quotes a few
legendary figures in addressing his wishes for parents. He hopes that parents

could be “robes of Solomon, or simply be Sir Isaac Newton sitting on the bed”.

Parents should be a source of knowledge and wisdom to the children. They are

the authority and housekeeper of the family.

In this essay, we can see how the author uses powerful imagery to describe

children as “fishes in the sea” or “starlings in the skies”. He also describes parents

as an anchoring “tree” with roots that go deep down in earth”. Most importantly,

he uses these imageries to show us how parents should provide an anchored

shelter for their children, stable yet near, so that children can seek comfort when

they are weary of their adventurers in the world outside of their homes.