why is the father so desperate to understand his son

The father's desperation stems from the fact that his own child has become alien to him, a stranger whom he cannot understand and feels distanced from. The relationship between the father and the son that the poet has presented to us is the common predicament that plagues every parent-child relationship. As soon as the child grows up, he starts depending less and less on his parents who used to be the centre of their world. This growing distance is puzzling for any parent and difficult to cope with because now their child is becoming independent and self-reliant. The father cannot communicate with his child, its as if they speak different languages now. This communication gap being created by the difference in ages and mentality. The same people who had lives together under the same roof become alienated from each other, they appear as strangers who have to start anew in building a relationship between two adults now. Their tastes, preferences and interests are different, each unable to understand the other. But even then the father would like nothing better to reach out an olive branch and shape a new love from sorrow. This is keeping in mind that they are after all father and son,nothing can break this indissoluble bond. The anger that ferments is due to a gap in communication, all that is required is building a bridge between the two because the yearning is from both sides.