For as long as fathers have had sons the bond has been a strong and awesome one. It’s no wonder two authors from totally different periods of time have chosen this bond as their topic. After reading “Father and Son,” by both Homer and Mary Nagy, the reader would be able to pick out a lot of differences and some similarities. The two stories tell about a father and son’s relationship with each other. The stories are very different from one another yet somewhat similar.
Overall that both poems were about the bond between father and son. Mary Nagy is a writer from more modern times and therefore uses language that is easier to read and understand. This was definitely one of the biggest differences the reader noticed between the two poems. Another big difference was that she wrote the poem from the mother’s perspective. Not only did we get to see the father and son’s feelings but the mother as well, her description of the father and son’s bond really comes from her heart, this made her poem a lot more emotional than Homer’s.
Mary Nagy’s poem is more of a real poem because she has more of a rhyme scheme, every other line rhymes throughout the entire poem. Finally, Mary Nagy does not give any of her characters’ names. I am not sure why except when someone reads her poem perhaps they can think of themselves as the father, son, or even the mother. Homer’s version was very different from Mary Nagy’s. It was definitely harder to connect with the characters because this epic took place in the 5th century B.C. and not modern times. Most of this version is told through the perspective of Odysseus, who was a great warrior, and therefore it doesn’t seem as there is as much emotion in this version. Unlike Mary Nagy’s description of a loving bond between father and son from childhood through adulthood, in Homer’s epic, there seems to be regret for a bond that hasn’t been there between Odysseus and Telemachus. This is evident when Odysseus says, “I am the father whom your boyhood lacked and suffered pain for lack f. ” When this poem takes place the son is already an adult who hasn’t seen his father in 20 years and is in disbelief that Odysseus is even his father. Both poems were very different and very difficult to compare them. Although the differences were more evident there were some similarities. The obvious similarity is that both poems are talking about one father and one son. After Telemachus realizes that it’s actually his father both stories share similar relationships between the father and son.
Finally, both of these poems are about the love shared by fathers and sons, although it may be shown and described in different ways. Overall both poems were about the bond between father and son. Her version was written in more modern language, which made it easier to understand. She also had more emotion in her poem. The reader could notice that the mother’s feelings were included in Mary Nagy’s version. As a result, it was easier to make a connection with this poem and that is why her version is better.
