Best Critical

Week 7 Response: The Loss of a Father

I was able to connect with Kevin Hart’s ‘Morning Knowledge’ (Hart) because of the fact that I could relate to it so well. Like the persona within the poem, I, too, lost my father. The amount of pain, love and heartbreak within the poem leaves the reader no choice but to sympathise from the beginning to the end. I had no choice but to critically analyse this poem!

Kevin Hart’s ‘Morning Knowledge’

Of all poems written by Kevin Hart, ‘Morning Knowledge’ was the poem that interested and engaged me the most. To me, the poem is of a son’s heartache felt over his father’s passing.

From the first line of the poem, a sympathetic and sad tone is set as the persona states that his “gentle father dies when day was young”. By describing his dad as a gentle man, the tragedy behind his death is emphasised because it is realised that no matter what kind of person you are–gentle or cruel–death is the fate for everyone. The sympathetic tone continues as a visual description of the father within his last days is given. He is described as having a “[g]ray face”, looking like “a raft of bones”. And seeing his father in his state, to the persona (although, also to the reader), brings “a bitter ache”. If all this heartache isn’t enough, we learn that the son was not able to express everything he wanted to say to his father and that these words are “still living on [his] tongue”.

Within the last stanza of the poem, it seems that the acceptance of welcoming death is explored. The persona tells us that “[i]n those last days [his] dad ate nothing much’, and, to me, it sounds like he stopped eating in a way to prepare himself for death. There is no point eating with the purpose of staying alive when death will be coming very soon. Finally, he gives a message to the “Dark One”–God–letting him know that he will be the one to help prepare him–”to smooth his hair”– while God carries him to the heavens, reminding his father of the people who loved him. He asks God to “be the one who lets him know [his] touch.”

The poem explores death and accepting the loss of loved ones in such a way that gives the reader no choice but to think of when it will be time for them to be in the shoes of the persona–losing a loved one and accepting death. Not only does it do that, but we cannot help but sympathise and reflect on their own experiences. After all, this poem allowed me to remember the time of my father’s passing.