Memory of My Father
Every old man I see Reminds me of my father When he had fallen in love with death One time when sheaves were gathered. That man I saw in Gardner Street Stumbled on the kerb was one, He stared at me half-eyed, I might have been his son. And I remember the musician Faltering over his fiddle In Bayswater, London, He too set me the riddle. Every old man I see In October-coloured weather Seems to say to me: "I was once your father."
Memory of My Father - meaning Summary
Reflections on Paternal Aging
The poem presents a son’s recurring recognition of his aging father in various strangers. Everyday scenes—men stumbling, a musician faltering—trigger memories and a sense that death has claimed the father’s vitality. The speaker collapses individual faces into a single figure, turning external encounters into inward meditation on loss, inheritance, and the way memory makes many men stand for one absent parent.
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