"I see myself on deck, convinced
his ship's gone down, while he's convinced
I'll see him on the dock..."
("Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead" - Andrew Hudgins)
I'm beginning to love poems where the title tells me exactly what to expect. However, this poem is a little misleading. When I think of a elegy, I imagine a sad, nostalgic speech describing the good qualities of a recently deceased person. Obviously, the speaker's father is not dead, but he is approaching death. Maybe he has some type of illness that is threatening his life, or he is just approaching old age. Either way, the speaker has a subdued or indifferent approach on his father's death.
Many differences are pointed out between the beliefs of the father and the speaker. For example, the speaker does not really believe in the afterlife. In the excerpt above, the father's belief in the afterlife is described using a metaphor. The father compares the afterlife to a journey specifically made on a ship. While the father believes his ship will stay afloat, the speaker believes the ship will sink after death. The speaker shows that he is not completely confident by using the phrase "I think" instead of "I know." In reality, no human being can really fully comprehend the afterlife. In admitting this, the speaker is admitting that his father could be right; however, the speaker still has a pessimistic attitude.
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