: The poem functions as an elegy , expressing sorrow for her father’s absence while celebrating the life he lived.
The poem begins:
“The speaker did not love her father when he was alive.” Correction: The speaker loved him, but she didn’t know him. She saw his habits as limitations, not as expressions of love. As she writes, “I wish he had not been / so tired.” That is regret, not a lack of love. poem at 39 pdf
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