Revelant Background | Summary | Themes | Style
Relevant Background
- Brendan Kennelly is from Kerry. He has worked most of his life as a Professor of English at Trinity College.
- Brendan Kennelly based this poem on the bible story of the Prodigal Son.
- The bible story is a parable or moral story about the courage to return and ask forgiveness. A wild son demanded his share of the family wealth. He left home and spent his wealth thoughtlessly. When he found himself miserable and poor, he returned to his father, full of guilt. He hoped to work as his father’s servant. In the bible parable, his father welcomed him back and forgave his rash mistake. The bible story is about guilt and love.
- Brendan Kennelly likes this bible story because it is a story of a father son relationship and forgiveness. Kennelly gives us a modern Irish version. The father has to forgive himself as much as forgive his son. Kennelly’s story is about having fun and being able to love, without the guilt element. In the bible story, there is a ‘good’ son who stayed at home and showed jealousy at his father’s treatment of the Prodigal Son. In Kennelly’s witty poem, there is no jealous brother to spoil the happy homecoming.
- Brendan Kennelly wrote this poem from the son’s point of view. The son who returns is confident and wise after his experiences. He stands up for himself and gently takes over as the stronger personality.
Summary
The speaker in the poem is a son returning from exile. There, he happily spent his time getting rid of his money. He confidently but gently addresses his father. He expects to be accepted on his return.
He had left home perhaps on a youthful adventure with a lot of his father’s money. In this poem, he returns broke, but wiser than he left. At first, he informs his father only about the general incidents of his long adventure away from home.
The returning son is not as guilty as the first Prodigal Son of the bible. He cleverly claims that his departure from home was not as bad as dying. He states that his return is a chance for a new beginning. This prodigal son is not crawling back, begging forgiveness. His not dispossessed. He still has his self-respect. With this, he expects to win his father’s respect.
He almost blames his father in the way he claims he had a lot to spend. Did his father give him this money as his inheritance? Or did he earn it? Clearly, this is a light-hearted Prodigal Son. He cheekily claims credit for the fact that he was successful in spending his fortune: ‘I spent it’. He boasts that his style of spending amazed those who observed him. If you can imagine Kennelly reciting this poem with a strong North Kerry accent, you will more easily understand that his poetic intention is comical here.
The son then claims that his spending spree gave him pleasure and happiness. Spending was an escape from boredom. The modern phrase, not used in the poem, is retail therapy. However, the son admits that he also got bored with his continuous spending. Maybe after he was broke.He argues that those who are too tight-fisted miss out on joy and fun. The son cleverly mocks careful people as planners who miss out on the real fun. He uses exaggeration to portray stay at home types as hoarders.
He mocks those who sneered at his mad spending spree. The observers were shocked at the way he threw money at everything, including women. He admits that he foolishly thought some of the women loved him. He eventually learned they only wanted him while he had money.
In the end, the son admits he was a loser. He felt everyone jeered at him as a loser. But he says this with such exaggeration that it is more a laughing matter than a serious point. Spending until he was broke taught him a harsh but valuable lesson about life. He found himself in a difficult [‘exacting’] situation, mistreated savagely by former friends. It is comical to regard losing as an art. This poem is a reversal of the parable. This boasting son is Kennelly’s way of having a laugh at the expense of holy types. This parable is normally about guilt. There’s no real guilt here.
He boasts directly to his father that he went further with his spending spree and his mad, flashy life than anyone else had ever done.
The son boldly predicts his father’s emotional response: forgiveness. Then in a surprise comment, he suggests the father has to forgive himself as much as his returning son. This is an interesting twist. The son believes his father shaped him, gave him the money and was thus partly responsible for all that happened to him. In this way, the son becomes his father’s equal.
Finally, the son takes over the situation. He is an adult, and now he names the terms of their relationship. Father and son will both share a bottle of spirits as the son reveals the finer details of his adventures. Of course, none of these exciting details are mentioned in the poem. The son has so much to reveal that he uses a wonderful phrase to hint at the vast gossip ahead: ‘I have things to tell you before I begin’. They will continue into the night, not son to father, but man to man.
Themes
- A parable for modern times
At a time when there is a lot of fun to be had from travelling the world and spending a fortune, Kennelly suggests a mature approach to the parent child relationship. He shows that having fun doesn’t have to end in guilt and humiliation. The poem also suggests that getting rid of material things can make you happier than hoarding them.
- The relationship between father and son
Kennelly shows that in adult life the relationship can be an equal one, adult to adult. He doesn’t believe in the father dominating the grown up son.
- Enjoying lives adventures
Kennelly mocks the over careful types. Through the words of the prodigal son, Kennelly makes fun of those stay at home types who plan their lives too much. Instead, Kennelly praises unsafe adventures into the unknown.
- Learning from your experiences
Kennelly’s prodigal son is not a loser. He claims that losing is an ‘art’ that teaches the survivor a lot. The ‘history of loss’ is a story of the son’s newfound wisdom. Planners learn nothing new about themselves and about life. Those who throw it all away when young, return wiser people.
- Living is about celebration
The son’s return is celebrated with a bottle of spirits. Instead of guilt and disgrace, Kennelly’s story shows happy celebration. The prodigal son celebrated life while he was away pursuing pleasure and spending money. The father and son sit down to celebrate the son’s celebration of life.
Style
Exaggeration: The Prodigal son exaggerates as much as he can. The second and third stanzas are good examples. His mockery of ordinary people in line twelve is a further example. Find more.
Allusion [direct reference to another text]: The entire poem is an allusion to a bible story. A careful reading shows that the outcome and atmosphere of this story is very different than the original.
Contrast: This prodigal son contrasts with the over cautious types. He doesn’t return as a failure and loser, an example of a blacksheep full of guilt. He surprises all by his confidence. He feels he was right all along to have had the experience.
Everyday diction: Many of the phrases are typical everyday expressions. A lot of the words are of one syllable. The words of the poem are from the spoken language of North Kerry people.
Symbol: The whiskey bottle is a symbol of celebration. It is suggested by the son. This replaces the father’s fatted calf of the original more religious parable.
Tone: There is a comical and happy tone throughout. The son is very gentle in his treatment of his father. Even though he shows he is a man when he returns, he does so lovingly. Lines twenty and the last six lines in particular show this loving tone. The manner of the son addressing his father shows an intimate tone.
Atmosphere: There is an atmosphere of adventure and celebration throughout. This is helped by warm-hearted exaggeration. The son is only amused by those who gave out about him.
Repetition: Many sounds, words and phrases are repeated throughout for musical effect and emphasis: ‘forgive’, ‘spend’, ‘lose’ etc. There is no formal rhyme scheme. This fits in with the informality of the relationship between father and son.
Alliteration: Note the ‘w’ in line fourteen, the ‘s’ in the next line. Find many more examples. Alliteration is used a lot in this poem to help it flow musically.
Assonance [vowel only repetition]:Note the ‘o’ sound repeated in stanza six and various other examples. . Assonance is used a lot in this poem to help it flow musically.
Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound]: Note the ‘s’ sounds the third stanza, used to convey the intense thrill of an uncontrolled spending spree.
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