Father And Son Poem By Cat Stevens Summary

His father gives him typical parental advice to keep his dreams simple and be careful.

Father and son poem by cat stevens summary. The first verse is the father s advice to his son before he heads off into the world. As its title suggests the song takes the form of a conversation between a father and son. The former promotes security normalcy serenity in convention. Everyone knows cat stevens s father and son perhaps the most celebrated track from his 1970 album tea for the tillerman.

The neutrality of the and in the title understates the poem s tenor suggesting neither the. It is also about the acute frustration in the individual prematurely deprived of one who could have. Father and son is a dramatic lyric in four stanzas inclining not quite decisively to blank verse. Father and son is about the desire for a source of psychological and spiritual certitude.

The song frames an exchange between a father not understanding a son s desire to break away and shape a new life and the son who cannot really explain himself but knows that it is time for him to seek his own destiny. Father and son is a popular song written and performed by english singer songwriter cat stevens now known as yusuf islam on his 1970 album tea for the tillerman. The advice to find a girl and settle down along with i am old but i m happy are an attempt to convince his son into a conservative path. The song was about a boy who wanted to join the revolution against the wishes of his conservative farmer father.

The song frames an exchange between a father not understanding a son s desire to break away and shape a new life and the son who cannot really explain himself but knows that it is time for him to seek his own destiny. Cat stevens originally wrote father and son as part of a proposed musical project starring nigel hawthorne called revolussia that was set during the russian revolution and could also have become a film. The musical project faded away when stevens contracted. The son yearns to venture out into the world thereby finding his true self in a manner that recalls robert frost s poem into my own.

Analysis of father and son by cat stevens. As the title suggests the song frames an exchange between a father not understanding a son s desire to break away and shape a new life and the son who cannot really explain himself but knows that it is time for him to seek his own destiny. Both parts are sung by cat stevens with the son s verses in a higher.