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(b) the children should have their own space.

The poet firmly believes that life is a journey, and God is both the ‘starting point’ and the destination. This journey is an inner one, a spiritual one and we are born to undertake this journey. The whole poem serves to express this belief. The poet attempts to explain what role the parents should play in bringing up their children.

The speaker says that a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. That is why the poet says that ‘your children are not your children’. Then he makes our role clear. He tells the parents that they have brought their children to this world because they have been chosen to serve as a ‘passage’ or vehicle to bring them to this world. Further, he tells us that since children belong to the future they have their own thoughts and the free will to do as they please. Then he tells us that we have to take care of our children as ‘stewards’ and give them ‘love’ and physical nourishment so that they grow up to serve their role.

Since God is the creator and the final destination, God is the archer, the parents his bow and the children his arrows. We only serve to send the arrows swift and far and help it reach its destination. God loves both the bow and the arrows because God is the eternal creator of nature’.

‘On Children’ is a sermon given by Almustafa to a woman holding a babe against her bosom. The fourteen-line poem is in the form of an imaginary conversation between a mother and the prophet Of the fourteen lines, the first five lines are devoted to enlightening the parents about who the children are and the remaining lines explain the role of the parents in bringing up their children.

‘On Children’ offers new insight into the parent-children relationship, and rejects our traditional, time-honoured and conservative ideas of bringing up children. According to the speaker, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as life’s longing for itself. Life longs to reproduce itself, and parents are its servants who execute that master plan. God uses parents as his instrument to send living ‘arrows’ to the earth. God, or the Supreme Being, is the archer, the parents are the bows and the children are the living arrows. Parents do not create them and hence they cannot possess them.

They are only the medium through which life expresses itself. Children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Parents can only act as ‘stewards’ and their role is one of ‘stewardship’. Parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower as much of their love as they can. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them because our children belong to the future, whereas the parents belong to the past generation. Therefore, parents should also not burden their children with their dead past, their scriptures and their saints. Since life looks forward and does not linger on, 

parents should let their children build their future, realize their potential and resist the temptation to force their children to be like their carbon copy.

In his sermon ‘On Children’, Gibran assumes the persona of Almustafa and speaks to the people with the intention of enlightening them about ‘children’ and to guide them as to how they should bring up their children.

First, he says that ‘children’ are born to fulfil the ‘longing’ of life itself. They are a gift from the abundance of existence. God, the supreme power, uses parents as a vehicle or passage to bring children to this earth. Since parents do not create ‘life’, parents do not own children. They may house their bodies but not their souls.

Secondly, children have their own souls and are not non-living things. Therefore parents cannot possess them as puppets. Life’s longing for itself brings forth children in the form of sons and daughters. Hence, our sons and daughters do not belong to us though we have borne them.

Thirdly, since parents bring children to this earth, they should also take care of children as ‘stewards’ and protect them, take care of their needs until they grow and mature and become fully developed individuals. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them.

According to the speaker in ‘On Children’, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as ‘Life’s longing for itself’. Parents may have brought them to this world because they have been chosen to serve as ‘passage’ or vehicle to bring the children into this world.

Children are closer to the very source of life than old people. Children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Parents should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them because our children belong to the future, whereas parents belong to the past generation.

As parents, our days are over. We may try to be like our children, but our past acts like a barrier. Since parents belong to the yesterdays and their children belong to the tomorrows, parents cannot conceive of their future. The children will have their own scriptures and saints. The present is not only a meeting point but also a point of departure. Every day the gap between parents and their children will become wider and wider.

The children have their own future and we should let them grow according to their own potential. The children are closer to existence than we are. Life looks forward and does not linger on. Hence parents cannot keep pace with our children’s lives and thoughts. Parents should let their children build their future, realize their potential and resist the temptation to force their children to be like their carbon copy.

According to the speaker in ‘On Children’, the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself have their own thoughts.

The poem ‘On Children’ is a sermon on parents. It does not focus merely on the lives of children but also talks about the responsibility of parents. In the first part, Gibran argues that children take birth as life’s longing for itself. Since we do not create children, we cannot possess them. However, Gibran argues that parents do have a role in the life of children. He says that we should give our children as much love as we can but never our thoughts. The children must be let free to think for themselves, and parents must not thrust their ideas on them.

Next, Gibran talks about the responsibility of parents. He states that God is the archer, and parents are his bows. The archer decides on the target, bends the bow to suit his target and shoots the arrows. The arrows are the children. Thus the archer wants the parents to serve as his instrument. If the bow remains rigid and inflexible, the arrows may not reach the desired destination. Therefore, as parents, it is our responsibility to be flexible enough to allow our children to live their own lives.

The parents must understand that God expects them to work as guardians to protect their children physically until they grow up and mature and realize god’s wishes. In their childhood, instead of getting overly attached to them, the parents should treat them like guests in their homes. They must love and respect them. They should help create an environment conducive for their growth and see that they grow and remain physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually healthy. Allround development is important.

Care for their mental health is equally important. Parents can do this by creating an environment allowing the inborn talent and goodness of the children to blossom. Children are not born bad, the environment makes them so. Therefore, it is necessary to create a healthy environment for the children at home, in school and in society.

Parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower their love as much as they can and take good care of them as we do to someone who is given to our charge. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them.

The parents superimpose ideas, thoughts, and even their pride upon their kids. Instead of imposing philosophies and thoughts on the children, they should give them love and create an atmosphere for their inner talents to flower.

As they grow into adults, the parents must exercise all the more patience and give them the freedom to make their own decisions and let them do what they like for a living. They must also strive to make them aware of the pitfalls in their path, if they choose a wrong path.

Finally, when they attain a marriageable age, parents should not influence their decisions by highlighting their lineage or wealth or caste. They must allow full freedom to love and marry a girl of their choice.

(c)  dreams.

(a) In the poem ‘On Children’ by Kahlil Gibran, ‘parents’ could stand as a metaphor for the older generation. The poem could be taken as a dialogue between Almustafa, the prophet, and the older generation. As advised by the prophet, the older generation must understand that the children of this generation are born as life’s longing for itself. They have their own souls. Therefore, the older generation must only strive to protect their bodies until they become adults so that they grow up as mature individuals and fulfil god’s mission for which they have come to this earth. The older generation should not indoctrinate the younger generation to lead a life as their parents like because the souls of the younger generation dwell in the house of tomorrow to which the older generation cannot enter. However, their duty is to make the younger generation realize that they have been sent to the earth by God to fulfil his mission.

(b) Similarly, ‘parents’ could also be taken as a metaphor for ‘leaders’. As leaders, they can only protect their children physically, until they come of age. They should not compel them to accept their ideologies and live to fulfil their mission. On the contrary, the leaders must understand that their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow and hence the ideas of the older generation leaders will only take them backwards. But the leaders also are god’s children and have been utilized by God as his instrument to send the children to the earth. Therefore, they must see to it that they protect the younger generation until they grow and become mature individuals. They must also be made aware of god’s purpose in sending them to the earth.

(c) The word ‘parents’ could also be taken as a metaphor for religious heads. The poem can be taken as a dialogue between the prophet and the religious heads. The religious heads are also children of God. They must realize that God wants them to protect their children when they are young and lead them in such a way that the children should have full freedom to obey the yearnings of their soul. The religious teachers should not force their children to obey and accept their ideas of God and his creation. They must only make them realize that as children they have been sent by god to this earth to fulfil god’s mission. Like his obedient children, they must be made aware that they have to fulfill god’s mission on this earth.

(d) Similarly, the word ‘parents’ could be taken as a metaphor for teachers and the poem could be taken as a dialogue between Almustafa, the prophet, and the teachers. The teachers must understand that they are expected to serve only as guardians and protect their children until they grow up and mature into fully grown adults. As teachers, they should only make them aware that they have come down to fulfill god’s mission. Teachers should not think that they should punish and make them do what he or she likes. On the other hand, their only job is to see that they are taken care of physically and are given complete freedom for their souls to grow and mature and understand god’s mission in sending,them to this earth.

The’archer’in’On Children’refers to God.

(a)  gladness.

According to the Prophet, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as ‘life’s longing for itself’. Parents do not create them and hence cannot possess them. Parents serve as a ‘passage’ or vehicle to bring the children to this world. Further, children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Whereas parents belong to the yesterdays, their children belong to the future. The children will have their own scriptures and saints; hence parents should only give them as much love as they can and not their thoughts. Parents should not thrust their past as an inheritance on their children but should let them grow according to their own potential.

Gibran uses the metaphor of archer-bow-and-arrows to explain the role of parents in bringing up children. In this metaphor, God is the archer, the parents represent the bow, and the children are the living arrows. Like an archer, God bends the bows testing them for stability to aid the arrows as they try to reach their destination. “It is the archer who decides the target, which is marked upon the path of the infinite, and He bends the parents (bows) with His might that His arrows may go swift and far”.

Kahlil Gibran tells the parents that they are not the owners of their children. He argues that children have come to this earth as Life’s longing for itself and are born as sons and daughters and they are not created by parents. Hence, parents cannot possess them. Parents should consider themselves as ‘stewards’ and their role is only stewardship. Gibran wants parents not to look upon their children as their puppets and so not to impose their religion, politics and ideas on the innocent children. Parents may give their own love but not their thoughts, because the children have their own souls. They have the free will to do as they please and have a mind of their own. They are free to think for themselves.

Parents merely act as ‘guiding lights’ for their children. They have the will to act as who they are and lead their own life and not how their parents want them to. The children have their own future, parents belong to the yesterdays, but children belonging to the tomorrows. We should only give as much love as we can and should let them grow according to their own potential. We may strive to be like them but we should never trust our past on them. We should resist the temptation of making our child a carbon copy of ourselves.

Almustafa tells parents that they can only act as ‘stewards’ and their role is one of ‘stewardship’; parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower their love as much as they can and take good care of them as we do to someone who is given to our charge. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them. They should not do so because our children belong to the future whereas we belong to the past generation.

(b)  backward.

According to the prophet, only our love may be given to the children.

According to the prophet Almustafa, parents should never believe that they own or possess their children. They should behave as though their role is that of being guards and/or ‘stewards’. Parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower their love as much as they can and take good care of them as we do to someone who is given to our charge. Parents should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them because our children belong to the future whereas we belong to the past generation.

(c)  yesterday.

Parents may give only their love for their children and should not give their thoughts.

(a) though parents give birth to their children they do not own them.

God bends the parents with all his might to test them for stability and strength so that the arrows (children) that they shoot travel far and reach their destination.

Life’s longing for itself.

God is the archer

According to the speaker in ‘On Children’, our children are sent forth as living arrows.

God is the archer, the parents represent 

According to the speaker in ‘On Children’, the archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite.

To  parents.

To children.

(a, c) children belong to the future/children have a different vision of life.

According to the speaker, the souls of children dwell in the house of tomorrow.

Children in the house of tomorrow.

(b) thoughts.

parents and children.

According to Kahlil Gibran, love occupies the most important place in God’s creation. Love is not created by us but is sent from above and it directs everything in our life as it sees fit. In this poem, Gibran illustrates how love works in the intimate relationship of parenthood. Gibran wants us to understand that our role as parents is only ’stewardship’ and nothing else. In the line ‘Your children are not your children’ Gibran tells parents to be aware that a child is not a thing to be possessed by us because we have not created ‘life’.

A child is eternal life itself and is a gift from the abundance of existence. As parents we may have brought them to the earth. This has happened so because we have been chosen to be a vehicle and so we are nothing else but a passage. It is life’s longing for itself that brings children to earth, as sons and daughters. Since children are not lifeless things we cannot possess them. That is why the prophet categorically states that ‘Your children are not your children’.

The archer bends his bow so that His arrows might go swift and far.

The parents cannot visit the house/houses or the world in which their children are going to live. They also can’t visit their houses even in their dreams.

A woman asked the prophet to speak about children.

In the last four lines of the poem Gibran uses the metaphor of archer-bow-and-arrows to explain the role of parents in bringing up children. In this metaphor, God is the archer, the parents represent the bow, and the children are the living arrows. Like an archer, God bends the bows testing them for stability to aid the arrows as they try to reach their destination. “It is the archer who decides the target, which is marked upon the path of the infinite, and He bends the parents (bows) with His might that His arrows may go swift and far”.

Children are life’s longing for itself and it is the parents who serve as a passage for them to come to the earth. Once they are born, it is parents’ responsibility to see that the ‘living arrows’ (children) reach the intended target which has been decided by the archer himself. Each arrow is ready to fly but the bow must be able to withstand the strain or pressure caused on it and remain stable or firm so as to enable the arrow to reach its target. The arrows have to fly and the bow has to be stable because the bow must be flexible enough to bend according to the will of the archer. This contrast between the role of the arrows and the role of the bow is brought out in the last line of the poem in the word ‘flies’ which refers to the arrows and ‘stable’ which refers to the bows.

The phrase ‘the bow that is stable’ refers to parents who serve God’s wishes without fail and with conviction.

(c)  is stable.

God, the archer.

‘On Children’ is a sermon given by Almustafa to a woman holding a babe against her bosom. The fourteen-line poem is in the form of an imaginary conversation between a mother and the prophet Of the fourteen lines, the first five lines are devoted to enlightening the parents about who the children are and the remaining lines explain the role of the parents in bringing up their children.

‘On Children’ offers new insight into the parent-children relationship, and rejects our traditional, time-honoured and conservative ideas of bringing up children.

According to the speaker, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as life’s longing for itself. Life longs to reproduce itself, and parents are its servants who execute that master plan. God uses parents as his instrument to send living ‘arrows’ to the earth. God, or the Supreme Being, is the archer, the parents are the bows and the children are the living arrows. Parents do not create them and hence they cannot possess them.

They are only the medium through which life expresses itself. Children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Parents can only act as ‘stewards’ and their role is one of ‘stewardship’. Parents should not treat their children as their puppets but shower as much of their love as they can.

Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them because our children belong to the future, whereas the parents belong to the past generation. Therefore, parents should also not burden their children with their dead past, their scriptures and their saints. Since life looks forward and does not linger on, parents should let their children build their future, realize their potential and resist the temptation to force their children to be like their carbon copy.