What Shall He Tell-That Son

“What Shall He Tell That Son?” by Carl Sandburg follows the desire of a father to guide his son as he dips his toes in the water of manhood.The father wants to impart the essence of his experiences , so that his son grows up to be a strong and wise man.

He tells him to “be steel; be a rock” so “this might stand him for the storms” and “guide him amid sudden betrayals”(6) and “slack moments”. He wants the son to be strong-hearted so may be prepared for the tough moments in life which every one incurs such as betrayals from peers and dull times where he can't find work. On the other hand, the father also tells his son to be “soft loam; be gentle; go easy” and how a “flower in a path up has sometimes shattered and split a rock”. The father feels that a person needs to be soft too since being tough and rash is never the solution, he uses the flower shattering a

In addition to this, the father thinks that his son should maintain focus on his goal with a “rich soft wanting”, he says that a tough desire will count but it's that perseverant focus which will matter in the end. Furthermore, the father feels that “too much money has killed men” and how it has also “twisted good enough men” into “dry thwarted worms”. He warns his son of the tragedy that befalls people who mindlessly follow their materialistic desires as excess money has never helped anyone. The father tells his son to put his basic first to move forward in life first instead of the quest for money. Later in the poem, the father states that “time as a stuff can be wasted” and that it’s good to be a “fool every so often” to arrive at an “understanding of a world numbering many fools”. Here, the father wants his son to realize that it’s alright to make mistakes in life, you may feel disappointed in having acted as a fool but always remember what you have learned from that mistake, never regret past decisions and keep moving forward.