Changing Perspectives

Changing Perspectives
Poem – My Father Began as a God
The poem ‘My Father Began as a God’ by Ian Mudie is about how a boy (probably him) changes his views on his father, as he grows older. As a child, he saw his father as a ‘god’ whose laws were ‘immutable’. He was a fearless hero, able to do anything: “He fearlessly lifted me to heaven by a mere swing to his shoulder”. However, by the time he was an adolescent, his father had become a ‘foolish small old man’. He was no longer superhuman, but a father, just like any other: “With silly and outmoded views of life and morality”. The cause for this change of perspective was specifically puberty. In consequence, he and his father would have drifted apart, since they would have clashed on many occasions. As he grew even older, he noticed that his father’s “faults scaled away into the past, revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. He noticed this because he matured even further – from an adolescent to an adult. This change would have probably improved their relationship. The composer’s final change in perspective occurred after his father died. As time went by, he began to realise that he was just like his father, and like every other man: “...the more I see myself as just one more of all the little men”. Since this poem is about a general situation, it is safe to assume that this change came about after the composer had kids of his own. Resulting from this change was probably a deeper knowledge about life. He realised that the path he will follow in the future will be the same one his dad followed.
Ian Mudie has written his poem in chronological order. He has done this to make the changes that occurred clearer to the responder. The style of the text is a prose poem. The composer has written it in this form because it gives it a nice flow. At the same time, it is like a story, so the responder can more easily relate to it. The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with...