The Son, The Father

“My Son, My Executioner” (1955) - Donald Hall

“My son, my executioner,

I take you in my arms,

Quiet and small and just astir,

And whom my body warms.

Sweet death, small son, our instrument

Of immortality,

Your cries and hungers document

Our bodily decay.

We twenty-five and twenty-two,

Who seemed to live forever,

Observe enduring life in you

And start to die together.”

Donald Hall narrates an eccentric and somewhat mournful coming of age story through this poem. Typically such a theme would present itself in a tale of adolescence, and the transformation from teenager to what is deemed adulthood. Hall redefines adulthood as the point where one has a child or children. The speaker's son “documents [his] bodily decay,” or rather a conversion from growth to deterioration, or from youth to adulthood. As he realizes that he is now old enough to have a son, he also realizes his mortality. He states that his son serves as evidence of his long journey towards death from childhood. Hall also admits that with the birth of a son, the patriarch may live on metaphorically by a continuation of the bloodline, ideas, and traditions, while physically dead. With the narrator's genealogical duty fulfilled by procreating it is almost as if he now has permission to die, as he embraces “sweet death” and “starts to die together” with his wife. More or less these are both honest descriptions of how he feels towards aging and his role as a father in life.

The use of both true rhymes and “sound” rhymes make Hall's poem effective in delivering the theme without a distracting tone or rhythm. In the first two stanzas Hall uses an “a-b-a-b” pattern, with “a's” being the sound rhyme and “b's” the true or slant rhyme. The imperfection of the slant and true rhymes make them less noticeable, which allows the poem to flow more naturally. The last stanza has only sound rhymes, this places emphasis on the last and most poignant lines. Hall also brilliantly toys with contrasting ideas and imagery. “Sweet death” and “My son, my executioner” are almost oxymoronic phrases considering the popular conceptions of both death and children. These opposing words placed side by side make powerful lines that immediately capture the reader's attention. By utilizing both of these strategies in poetry writing, I can evolve my composition from mere elementary rhymes, to those that can carry meaning and involve the audience.