The Prodigal Son in Poetry

Abstract

While there are many examples of Prodigal Son poems, the works of Bishop and Smith are compared as they both struggle to make sense of ‘home’ from a perspective of exile. For Bishop, home is shown to have little or no meaning; for Smith, it is full of meaning and cannot be ignored. Both have to come to terms with the loss of home, while accepting its role in their formation, and this is a feature of their poems which both implicitly and explicitly references the Prodigal Son parable. The role of Robinson Crusoe as a type of Prodigal Son is explored and contrasted by both in terms of Crusoe’s experiences of homecoming and his relationship to the wider community.