The Full Text of “Father Returning Home”
The Full Text of “Father Returning Home”
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“Father Returning Home” Introduction
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Dilip Chitre's "Father Returning Home" reflects on the alienation of modern life, the disconnect between parents and children, and the desire for a sense of belonging. The father of the poem's title embarks on a lonely, late-night commute home from work in the city. After a long train ride, he rushes through the mud and the rain only to reach a joyless house with emotionally distant children, and he eventually falls asleep dreaming of his ancestors. Chitre published "Father Returning Home" in his 1980 collection Travelling in a Cage. The poem is written in free verse and was inspired by Chitre's memories of his own father, a periodical publisher in Mumbai, coming home from work in the 1950s.
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“Father Returning Home” Summary
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The speaker's father takes the late-night train, becoming one of many people who stand in silence under the train's yellow lights as they head home from work in the city. He doesn't notice the suburbs that pass by outside the train's windows. His clothing is wet and muddy from the rain and his heavy bookbag is worn out. His weary, aging eyes absently gaze out through the hot, sticky night in the general direction of home. The speaker envisions his anticlimactic exit from the train, followed by his rushing across the dingy train platform and over the tracks until he reaches the little road where their house is. He rushes ahead despite the fact that his leather sandals are by now covered with mud. Once he's finally home, he eats a sad little dinner and reads. Then he heads to the bathroom, where he ponders how alienated he feels from the world humanity has created for itself. His body is shaking as he emerges from the bathroom and then washes his brown, aging hands in cold water at the sink. His moody kids barely interact with him. He falls asleep to the white noise coming from the radio, dreaming about both past and future generations of his family, as well as about the ancient nomadic peoples who traveled across a mountain pass into India.
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“Father Returning Home” Themes
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The Alienation and Restlessness of Modern Life
"Father Returning Home" describes the speaker's aging father heading home from work in the city. His lonely, tiring commute on a late-night train surrounded by other "silent" passengers suggests that the modern world is an isolating, disheartening place. What's more, arriving home is no relief: the father seems alone and dejected even in his own house, among his own children. All in all, the father's "estrangement" from his environment and other people reflects the alienation and restlessness of modern life, something the poem implies can leave people feeling cut off from any sense of meaning or belonging.
The father's journey home sounds both exhausting and demoralizing. The fact that he's taking "the late evening train" suggests that he still works long hours despite getting on in years, while the mention of his "unseeing" eyes conveys that he's either too tired to notice his surroundings or he just no longer cares enough to pay attention. That his "bag stuffed with books / Is falling apart" further hints at his weariness (he's too tired to mend or replace his bag) and/or that working long hours doesn't improve his material circumstances all that much (that is, he can't afford to fix the bag).
The poem also presents the father as just one of many "silent commuters" undertaking this draining trip from the city into the suburbs. These people aren't commiserating about their shared circumstances nor, it seems, even acknowledging one another's presence. Indeed, the father eventually exits the train "Like a word dropped from a long sentence." By this, the speaker means that his absence is barely noticeable; the world swiftly moves on without him. The pace and breadth of modern life, this image suggests, devalues the individual.
The father's dejection doesn't abate once he steps off the train, either. Back at home, he "contemplate[s] / Man's estrangement from a man-made world," implying that the disconnection he feels from everything around him is a symptom of the times he lives in. Instead of improving life, the father believes that modern technologies and innovations have pushed people apart and robbed them of a true sense of purpose. That he falls asleep "Listening to the static on the radio" further reflects the listlessness he feels: a radio is normally used for communication or entertainment, but the father is tuning in to white noise—to random, meaningless "static."
He finds respite only in his dream of "ancestors and grandchildren," hammering home the idea that modernity has alienated him from all sense of who he is or where he belongs. In his dreams, he's connected to a lineage of people: to "ancestors" who came before him and "grandchildren" who will follow. Such dreams convey his longing to feel like he's part of something. Modernity, the poem suggests, has robbed him of the sense that his life matters.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-6
- Lines 13-19
- Lines 21-24
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Family, Legacy, and Intergenerational Conflict
The titular father of "Father Returning Home" finds little comfort upon reaching home after a long day at work. He has a dismal dinner of "stale chapati" and "weak tea," hinting that no one has saved or prepared anything for him, and his "sullen children" barely speak to him. Though he presumably spends all day providing for his family and trying to give them a better life, the poem hints that a stark generational divide distances this father from his children. The now-grown speaker looks back on all this with clear pity and compassion, illustrating how children often fail to appreciate their parents' sacrifices—and the importance of recognizing where they come from—until they're adults themselves.
Perhaps because they don't think he'd appreciate or even understand their humor, the father's children "refuse[] to share / Jokes" with him. They also don't tell him "secrets," keeping their world separate from his. They don't trust their father, it seems, at least not with their humor or their hearts.
It's clear that their father, meanwhile, longs to feel a sense of belonging and connection, as he drifts off to sleep "dreaming / of his ancestors and grandchildren." He envisions generations both the past and the future, reflecting the importance he places on being part of a continuous family lineage. The mention of grandchildren further suggests that he's wondering what his own legacy will be—how he will be remembered by the generations to come.
Notably, the poem implies that the speaker (implied to be based on Chitre himself) is telling this story about his father from an adult perspective; he mentions his father's "sullen children" as though he weren't one of them, suggesting that he has since grown up and is now looking back on the past. The attention he pays to his father's weariness, shoddy clothing, and aging body conveys the speaker's present empathy for his father. As an adult, he seems more able to imagine and appreciate the difficulties his father faced in providing for a family who wasn't always grateful or even aware of his sacrifices. Now, this poem is essentially his way of connecting with his own ancestors and honoring his father's legacy.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 8-9
- Lines 13-14
- Lines 20-24
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Fatherhood and Masculinity
In addition to reflecting the alienation of modern life, "Father Returning Home" can also be read as a meditation on the traditional demands of fatherhood. (Recall that the poem was inspired by Chitre's own memories of his father in the 1950s, a time when, by and large, men were expected to go out and work while women stayed home with the children.) The speaker's father clearly feels disconnected from the children he works all day to provide for, yet who "refuse[] to share / Jokes and secrets with him." The poem hints that this distance is, at least in part, a result of societal expectations that push men to spend their time away from the home, providing for their families rather than spending time with them.
The speaker pictures the father "hurrying" to get home, suggesting that being with his family is important to him. On the train, his "eyes [...] / fade homeward"; he's not paying attention to the scenery he's passing through, the poem implies, because he's thinking about getting back to his family. And once the train stops, he "hurries across the length of the grey platform" and "hurries onward" despite his muddy shoes.
Yet when he does finally make it home, he's greeted by yet more solitude and silence. Rather than eating a meal with his family, the father drinks "weak tea" and eats old "chapati" (an Indian flatbread). Rather than speaking to anyone, he "read[s]" and sits in the bathroom "contemplate[ing]" his own separation from the world. He even feels cut off from his own children, who "refuse[] to share / Jokes and secrets with him." He's not really a part of their world; they seem to view him as a serious, dismal outsider.
The poem suggests that the father’s disconnection from his family is a direct result of "Man's estrangement from the man-made world." While "man" refers to humanity in general, it also suggests the particular ways that men suffer in a world where they are conditioned to be the breadwinners for families they always don't get to know.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 6-7
- Lines 10-16
- Lines 20-21
- Lines 22-23
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Father Returning Home”
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Lines 1-3
My father travels ...
... his unseeing eyes"Father Returning Home" begins with the speaker describing his father's commute from work in the city "on the late evening train." The speaker describes his father in the present tense, as though he's right there with him; the poem will later imply that the speaker is in fact imagining this scene later in life.
Right away, the poem's imagery conveys just how dismal and tiresome the father's commute is. The fact that he takes the "late" train suggests that he works long hours or an inconvenient late shift. The train itself is dreary, filled with other "silent commuters" who don't interact as they stand under the artificial "yellow light." These people just want to get home, the poem hints, and don't have the energy or desire to connect with other passengers.
The train moves from the city through "suburbs," which "slide past" the train's windows and the father's "unseeing eyes." He is not literally blind; instead, this metaphorical description of his eyes further conveys his weariness. He has no interest in those suburbs, which he likely commutes past nearly every day. There's nothing new or exciting about this experience, and the poem hints that he's too worn out from work to care about his surroundings.
The sounds of the poem in these lines add to its somber tone. Sibilance in particular ("Standing," "silent," "Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes") conjures the hush of the people inside the train. These lines also establish that the poem will be written in free verse. The absence of meter and rhyme makes the poem feel casual and perhaps even ordinary, fitting for the very ordinary scene the speaker is describing.
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Lines 4-7
His shirt and ...
... humid monsoon night. -
Lines 8-12
Now I can ...
... he hurries onward. -
Lines 13-16
Home again, I ...
... a man-made world. -
Lines 17-19
Coming out he ...
... on his wrists. -
Lines 20-24
His sullen children ...
... a narrow pass.
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“Father Returning Home” Symbols
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Static
At the end of the poem, the father falls asleep while "Listening to the static on the radio." This static symbolizes the lack of purpose and connection in the speaker's life and in the modern world in general. While radios are typically used for communication (i.e., the news) or entertainment (sports games, music, etc.), the father's radio isn't actually emitting anything meaningful. Instead, he's simply falling asleep to the sound of white noise, seemingly to keep the oppressive silence of his isolation at bay. The word "static" also suggests something that is flat, unchanging, and rather lifeless. This adds to the idea that the radio's static echoes the listlessness the father feels. His days are frightfully repetitive and empty.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 21-22: “He will now go to sleep / Listening to the static on the radio,”
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“Father Returning Home” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
The poem's imagery illustrates the dull monotony and discomfort of the father's life. As he heads home from work, for example, he's "Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light." Readers can envision the train bathed in sickly artificial light and filled with people who don't talk to or perhaps even look at one another. "Suburbs slide past" the train's windows as it moves further from the city. The image is dreary; this commute doesn't seem pleasant.
The poem's descriptions of the father himself are no less dismal. "His shirt and pants are soggy" from the "monsoon" season's humidity and rain, his jacket is "stained with mud," and his tote bag, brimming with books, is "falling apart." The weather is hot and sticky, and he looks shabby and uncomfortable. His eyes are "dimmed by age," lacking their former brightness or any spark of excitement. Instead of lighting up at the prospect of going home, they simply "fade homeward through the humid monsoon night." The word "fade" suggests that he's not exactly excited to get home because of all the good things that await him; rather, he's simply worn down and ready to get off this train.
Thick sibilance ("Standing," "silent," "Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes," etc.) and /f/ alliteration ("falling," "fade") enhance this imagery. The poem is quiet and muffled rather than brash and attention-grabbing. Those soft, ghostly sounds slip past, subtly mirroring the way that the father's presence doesn't seem to affect anyone else.
His discomfort doesn't abate when he makes it home. His leather sandals are "sticky with mud," and readers can perhaps hear them squelching as he "hurries onward." His tea is "weak" and his "chapati" is "stale"; home feels as bland and tiresome as the train. Later, the speaker envisions him standing "at the sink," his body "trembling" as "cold water" pours over his "brown hands." It isn't clear whether he is shaking from exhaustion or emotion; regardless, this imagery makes it easy to picture the scene at hand and to sense the father's vulnerability. The speaker also points out that a "few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists." That the speaker is zooming in on these details suggests his own love and empathy for his father; he notices that he is getting older.
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Lines 2-7: “Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light / Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes / His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat / Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books / Is falling apart. His eyes dimmed by age / fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.”
- Lines 12-14: “His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward. / Home again, I see him drinking weak tea, / Eating a stale chapati”
- Lines 17-19: “Coming out he trembles at the sink, / The cold water running over his brown hands, / A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists.”
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Asyndeton
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Simile
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Enjambment
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Parallelism
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"Father Returning Home" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Commuters
- Monsoon
- Chappals
- Chapati
- Estrangement
- Sullen
- Nomads
- Subcontinent
- Pass
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “Standing among silent commuters”)
People traveling to or from work. The word is usually used in reference to people who work in a city but live in the suburbs outside of it.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Father Returning Home”
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Form
"Father Returning Home" consists of 24 lines of free verse arranged as a single stanza. The long, undivided stanza subtly conveys the tiring monotony of the speaker's father's life. Frequent enjambments also pull the reader down the page without much time to pause, evoking the father's restlessness and inability to feel like he belongs.
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Meter
The poem is written in free verse, so it doesn't use a set meter. This lack of meter keeps the poem's language conversational, as though the reader is right there with the speaker looking back on their father's life. The poem's language is natural and ordinary rather than overtly poetic, which makes sense for a poem about an ordinary life.
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Rhyme Scheme
As a free verse poem, "Father Returning Home" doesn't use a rhyme scheme. As with the lack of meter, this lack of rhyme scheme helps to create the poem's conversational, matter-of-fact tone. The poem's natural, prose-like language suits this portrait of an ordinary man going about any ordinary task: commuting home from work.
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“Father Returning Home” Speaker
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Dilip Chitre based the poem on his own experiences watching his father return from work in the late 1950s, so it's fair to interpret the speaker as Chitre himself.
That said, all readers know from the poem is that the speaker is someone whose father works in a city a fair distance from home. And though the poem is written in the present tense ("Now I can see him," "I see him drinking weak tea," etc.), it's implied that the speaker is actually now an adult and looking back on the past. The speaker mentions his father's "sullen children" as if he himself weren't one of them, for example, thereby maintaining some distance from the action of the poem. The speaker seems to be remembering certain moments from his childhood and imagining others that he couldn't possibly have witnessed. For instance, while the speaker may remember what his father looked like as he sat and ate a "stale chapati," he wouldn't have known what his father looked like on the train or what he dreamed about as he fell asleep.
These intimate details suggest that the speaker is looking back on his childhood with empathy and understanding towards his father—feelings that he perhaps didn't have access to when he was younger. In a way, the poem is just as much a reflection of the speaker growing older and seeing his father differently as it is a portrait of his father at a certain point in time.
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“Father Returning Home” Setting
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The poem was inspired by Chitre's childhood, so readers can assume it takes place in India. Details like the mention of "chapati," an Indian flatbread, and "chappals," leather sandals often worn in India, support this reading.
The poem more specifically takes place as the speaker's father is commuting home from work in a city. The poem's first half describes him boarding a "late evening train," suggesting that he's been working long hours, and standing surrounded by other "silent commuters" in the train's "yellow" artificial lights. The scene feels pretty dismal; these people aren't speaking to each other or enjoying the scenery that flashes by the train's windows. Instead, they come across as tired and isolated. It's also "monsoon" season: a hot, humid time of year that brings heavy rain. After the speaker's father gets off the train, he hurries through the wet, sticky weather to reach his home.
The second half of the poem takes place inside the father's house. The fact that he spends his evening "drinking weak tea," eating "stale" bread, and washing his hands with "cold water" all suggest that this isn't a very warm, welcoming space—not for the speaker's father, at least.
While the poem takes place in India, its images of weary travelers packed into a dreary train, silently heading home late at night from their jobs in the city, reflect the reality of life in many urban areas across the globe.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Father Returning Home”
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Literary Context
Dilip Chitre (1938-2009) was one of India's most well-known poets and critics. The multilingual Chitre wrote in both English and Marathi, and he was also an accomplished translator (best known for his translations of the poetry of the 17th-century Marathi saint Tukaram). "Father Returning Home" was published in his first English-language collection, Travelling in a Cage, in 1980.
Chitre's work often explores themes of exile and alienation (the latter of which is apparent in this poem with the father's deep sense of "estrangement" from the world around him). Like many poets of his day, Chitre was also interested in challenging the norms and traditions of pre-20th-century literature. Writing in the wake of India's independence, Chitre believed that the influence of the West had led Indian poets to overlook their own nation's rich artistic history. His translations and bilingual writing were, in part, a means of championing a distinctly Indian literary voice and canon.
Many poets have explored the often invisible sacrifices parents make for their children. For comparison, readers may wish to check out Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays," in which the poet reflects on how his father would get up early to warm the house for his family.
Historical Context
"Father Returning Home" was published in 1980, but when writing it, Chitre drew on his own memories of his father, Purushottam Chitre, coming home from work in the 1950s. The elder Chitre moved the family from Baroda to the much larger city of Mumbai when the poet was 12 years old. The mention of a "bag stuffed with books" in this poem likely nods to the fact that he was a magazine publisher.
The poem more broadly speaks to the growth of suburban life in post-war societies across the globe, as well as the subsequent boom in the number of people commuting to and from work in cities. When Chitre was growing up, men were by and large family breadwinners while women stayed home with the children. In many ways, men lived separate lives at work in the city, only seeing their families for brief periods at night or on the weekends.
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More “Father Returning Home” Resources
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External Resources
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Listen to the Poem Aloud — An animated recording of "Father Returning Home."
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A Bilingual, Multi-Disciplinary Artist — Read a short overview of Chitre's many accomplishments, courtesy of Poetry International.
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More Poems About Fathers — A collection of poems about fathers from The Academy of American Poets.
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