Book Review-Bridget

Poems For A Son With Wings is a collection of American and English Poetry, by Robert P. Tristram Coffin. It's a rather old book I found while searching through the library. This book is interesting in that the author has found over a hundred poems and put them together in a book and dedicated it to his "winged son." This seems to be an ongoing motif or theme throughout the book. The author is truly sending a message to his son, and it is most evident in the first poem, entitled This Day My Son Puts On His Wings. This poem is clearly written from a father to his son on the day he releases him into the world on his own. To relate this to modern day, I could see a parent reading this poem to their child on the day they go to college or graduate from high school where the age old saying, "spread your WINGS and fly" cliche graduation quote comes from.  This poem obviously presents this message in a classier tone

Wear your wings, young citizen, 

Out of the flat world that has been

Into the new world which is round, 

Which man can travel fast as sound

This father is acknowledging his son as an important member of society now, and of the educated world. He years for his son to be a part of our ever moving forward world.

No peaks, no valleys, no high or low

Your high and young blue eyes shall know.

Open your wings, son, and go fast

Over a brotherly world at last.

This father is proud of his son and truly believes he is ready for life ahead, and that no obstacle can possibly stand in his way of success.  

This book is full of poems that could be written from a parent to their child, with a focus on a father-son relationship.  Not all poems have a joyous tone, some are extremely sad actually. The poems also vary in length of lines, style and tone.  Some are long and sad, short and happy, rarely do they rhyme.  Most have enjambed lines, but the punctuation makes it easy to follow. For example of this on one of the rare rhymed poems (Rest):

The boy went down the meadow towards the evening,

Shadows of haystacks reached across the world,

The night-hawks from the high small clouds of Summer

Fell in a lovely sound of wings and whirled.

I enjoy this poem because the rhymed language as well as how the lines flow from one to the next make it extremely enjoyable to read and makes me imagination run wild with all of the imagery as the story builds! I love how the author rhymes whirled with world because they sound so similar. I wish I could rewrite the whole poem here but that would take too much space...worth the read though.

Although not all of the poems have to do directly with a son growing up, they have something to do with time and change. For example, Brief Flowering has to do with the seasons changing....Here are some lines from each of the four stanzas which represent a season:

Days grow, the frosted silver suns

Sail longer through the sky...

....

Icivles weep along the eaves

And into diamonds flower...

...

Soon groundhogs will be up and see...

...

Such petals the last breath can uproot...

...The duskier flowers of May

The book ends with a poem called, The Lights Go On. This poem is about a long and tiresome journey that has finally come to an end.  It again does not have to do with a father and son directly, but rather about life in general, the journies life brings one on, etc., which is what a father prepares his son for anyway.