The Poem
My father travels on the late evening train
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light
Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes
His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat
Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart. His eyes dimmed by age
fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
He hurries across the length of the grey platform,
Crosses the railway line, enters the lane,
His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward.
Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chapati, reading a book.
He goes into the toilet to contemplate
Man's estrangement from a man-made world.
Coming out he trembles at the sink,
The cold water running over his brown hands,
A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists.
His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep
Listening to the static on the radio, dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking
Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass.
Analysis
To me, this poem deals with the sacrifices a father makes for his family: the discomfort, the long hours, the material sacrifice, etc. Almost every line is dedicated to creating this atmosphere of discomfort, and vividly presenting the image of an almost broken man's unwavering resolve to slave for his family's benefit. Some ideas in the poem are truly heartbreaking, and I believe it opens the eyes to children who take their fathers for granted.
"Late evening train"
- "late" tells us that the father is tired because of the excessive work hours he suffer for the good of his family;
- it could also show unnecessary waiting for a delayed train, making him suffer the discomfort of not being home for a longer time;
- "train" might imply cheap public transport, and from that we can infer that it isn't well maintained, further displaying the father's discomfort.
"Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light"
- the father is "standing," and not sitting, showing us that he still cannot rest after his already long day at work;
- the "silent commuters" who travel the late train with him feel just as nervous and uncomfortable, hinting at the generisability of this poem, showing that many fathers and husbands suffer this same fate all over;
- the "yellow light" that he stands in shows that the facility is old and run down, further creating an uncomfortable atmosphere.
"Unseeing eyes"
- this may be inferred as his eyes been worn out due to age, becoming bad, but still having to continue the same amount of work, if not more, to maintain his family's comfort.
"His shirt and pants are soggy"
- "soggy" tells us that his raincoat is not doing a good job at keeping him dry, hinting that the raincoat is probably old, or cheap and bad, or all at the same time; whatever it is, it shows the father's sacrifice to keep his family happy;
- "soggy" also shows us that he is feeling very cold and wet, continuing this image of discomfort;
- wet clothes are also slightly heavier to haul around than dry clothes, implying that every little bit of extra effort required to get home is another challenge altogether.
"His bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart"
- the enjambment symbolises the 'overflowing' of books in his bag, just like how the words 'overflow' into the next line;
- "falling apart" further illustrates the poor state of his belongings as it implies that the bag is old and problematic, lacking comfort for the father;
- also, it shows that he doesn't spend money to buy a new one, implying that he saves every extra cent of money for his family.
"His eyes dimmed by age"
- "dimmed" is used for light, and if we speak metaphorically, he is losing his light: losing his youthful energy he once possessed;
- "age" being the main cause of his eyes "[dimming]" makes the cause a lot more tragic, as it is the inevitable act of fate and nothing could have been done to prevent it, almost like the fall of a tragic hero.
"Like a word dropped from a long sentence."
- this shows how insignificant in the world the father looks when he gets off the train;
- the "long sentence" could be a metaphor for the train and the other "silent commuters," telling us that the father, along with all the other fathers on the train are insignificant.
"He hurries across the length...
Crosses the railway line...
...but he hurries onward."
- the repetition of "hurries" shows the father's unwavering attempts to get home as soon as possible;
- it also may signify the repetition of his daily work routine, as "hurries" is both the second word from the beginning and from the end, showing that almost his entire day is filled with his work;
- the caesura and end-stop juxtaposes the repetition of "hurries" as what it does is pause the movement of the sentence, emphasising the father's attempts to "[hurry]" home;
- the punctuation could also be a symbol for the "sticky...mud" (that makes it harder to walk) that the father treads on his journey home;
- the father's "chappals" show us that he doesn't even wear shoes, further illustrating his discomfort, especially when walking in mud;
- it also shows that the father prefers to save money not spending more on his shoes as could save that for the benefit of his family.
"I see him drinking weak tea"
- there is more water in the tea than anything else, saving money on the other ingredients.
"Eating a stale chapati"
- the "stale" food is old and distasteful, showing again that the father saves money by buying cheap and bad food;
- it may also imply that he lets his family have the good chapati and takes the stale one for himself;
- or it may even hint at the long hours he works, as the chapati gets stale after many hours.
"Reading a book"
- the "book" represents his work as his work bag was full of books, so this shows his commitment and compulsion to his work for his family's benefit.
"The cold water running over his brown hands"
- even at home, the symbol of comfort in his life, the "cold[ness]" still follows him and torments him, implaying that there is no end to this discomfort.
"A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists"
- this anthropomorphism in the word "cling" imply that the water droplets have a conscious mind to discomfort the father even further, making the instance more unnatural and stressful;
- the word "greying" also shows stress in the father's being, hinting that he is overworking himself.
"His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him."
- I personally found this absolutely heartbreaking as the father works tirelessly for his family, especially for the future of his children. The children probably do this because he is rarely around, so they don't get the opportunity to bond with him as much as they do their mother, giving them a bias towards their mother over him. Another reason would be that they see themselves as better off than him. This is tragic because it is a vicious cycle, as only by their father's hard work do they have the benefit to feel that way;
- there is also a physical separation between the father and his children in the poem as they are mentioned on separate lines, almost mimicking the "jokes and secrets" his "children have often refused to share;"
- I also felt that "jokes and secrets" are reserved for people you have compassion for (unless you're a comedian); and the fact that they don't share them with their father shows the children's lack of compassion for him.
"Listening to the static on the radio"
- this implies that the radio is broken, again showing the poor state the father lives in for the benefit of his family.
"Dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren"
- I personally think that his children are not old enough to have children, and that the grandchildren mentioned here are his potential grandchildren. But what this shows us is that the father has his family on his mind all the time, if not during work, during his sleep as well.
