Liam+Rudevics

The poem 'My father began as a God' is a poem about a man's self-reflection on his own life, and also a reflection on his father's life and values that he role modelled to the speaker as a child. As a child, the speaker saw his father as this near perfect Godly figure, but as he grows a little older he begins to think for himself and develops his own ideas about things in life, that go astray from his father's views, which he sees as "silly and outmoded". As he grows older still, he begins to realise that his Father had strong morals of honesty, generosity and integrity. However, he realises too late that he has become just 'one more of all the little men', ordinary and the same as everyone else, and doesn't nearly compare to the man he father wanted him to be.
 * 1.**

The tone of the poem is one of regret and sorrow because the speaker is reflecting upon his fathers morals and his self-discipline in these principles ("His laws were immutable"), and how as the speaker grew older, he began to doubt his father's morals and opinions ("he had become a foolish small old man"). The persona in the poem is disappointed in himself because he was ignorant and thought that his father was living in a past generation, when he was really just trying to teach the speaker how to be a good person, and he realises that he is no better than "all the little men", that he is just an ordinary person, who didn't take the opportunity to learn the virtues his father tried to teach him.
 * 2.**

The poem is quite a depressing poem because it makes you think about all the opportunities in life that you sometimes miss. It really helps to validate the expression "respect your elders", because this poem is an example of a younger person believing their own opinion was more correct than someone who was older than them, it the young person realises the ill consequences of that too late. At the same time, this poem can also be read as a piece of motivation, because the reader can relate to the text and apply the situation to themselves, and if necessary they can think about how they would like to do things differently.

The poem relates to the concept of change because it demonstrates the change in views between generations, and how opinions can differ depending on age, for example how the young person though that his father's views were "outmoded", that things had changed in the world. It is an example of how the persona may want to change himself, as at the end of the poem when he is reflecting on how he compares to his father, he expresses his dissatisfaction with himself which is often provocative for change within oneself. It could also be thought that maybe the speaker's father felt the same way about his own father when he was at a similar stage in life as the speaker, and so he made the changes in his life that the persona may be thinking of making. This relates to the proverb "the more things change, the more they stay the same", the idea that change is merely an always occurring cycle.
 * 3.**

Two techniques the poet uses to represent change are repetition and imagery. Ian Mudie uses repetition in a unique way to convey the idea of change. Throughout certain stages in his poem, he evaluates his attitudes towards his father's morals using the word 'strange'. However, he actually changes the way he represents change in this poem by altering the use of this word from 'strange', to 'stranger' and finally to 'strangest' as the poem progresses. Another technique he uses to represent the change in his poem is imagery. Mudie places common images, such as the Sinai mountains, the way the persona is 'lifted to heaven' by being placing him on the back of a cow, and the image of 'all the little men' to convey his message through the poem. These images represent change because they contrast and are live examples that we are able to relate to.
 * 4.**

The form of the poem does help to convey Mudie's ideas because it is written in 1st person, the persona is writing down his thoughts, similar to a diary entry, and we are able to read them direct. The structure of the poem also makes it easy to understand the message, because it explains a story from beginning to end, and each new stanza can be imagined as a progression of the persona's age.
 * 5.**

We can connect to the poem in the way in which we view the world as always changing and to put it plainly, it always will be changing. The outlook of the world in the eyes of an eighty year old is vastly different when compared to that of the world seen through the eyes of a six year old. To me it shows that our perspectives never stay permanent and is always changing. The main reason is most probably due to new experiences encountered in our life, knowledge or our level of maturity and we can relate to that as we are still young and we know our lives won’t be the same as they are now, as when we are eighty years old.
 * 6.**

The poem positions us to respond in a positive way, highlighting the importance of listening to and respecting our elders. We are positioned to believe that every man has a great deal to learn from his father, and that there is opportunity for everyone to stand out.
 * 7.**