" (Line, 52) .
Lowell disparages his father continuously through pointing out some of the less honorable and sad facts about his father. His only experience of Pearl Harbor is shown in the "white ducks he"d bought/ at a Pearl Harbor commissariat." Lowell pokes fun of his father in his statement, comparing his father's purchase of "white ducks" to perhaps the lives that had fought and died at Pearl Harbor. Another instance of imagery that makes Lowell's father seem even more absurd and ridiculous is in Lowell's line ""Anchors aweigh," Daddy booms in his bathtub." (Line 35) The image of a full grown man taking a bath and singing navy tunes is a ridiculous sight, perhaps one that would be commonly seen in little children as they play with their toys in the bathtub. This attitude makes Lowell's father seem like a big goofy child, ridiculously happy such that he sings tunes in the bathtub. Lowell also describes that this attitude is one that is repeated by his father after every job lost as "he still hummed "Anchors aweigh" in the tub-/ whenever he left a job." (Lines 46-47) Even in his most recent job, Lowell's father was his own client as he is unable to be "one of the crowd," (line 34) and unable to even find or persuade a single other client. .
Though Lowell ridicules his father "Commander Lowell" throughout the poem, Lowell's last lines take a serious and almost proud tone as he describes his father, the respectable man who "was once successful enough to be lost/ in the mob of ruling-class Bostonians." (Lines 61-62) This shift in tone and attitude is one that comes suddenly, almost as if a happy memory or flashback. Suddenly, "Commander Lowell" becomes a hero and admirable person as opposed to a failure and object of ridicule. It is implied that Lowell's father becomes extremely wealthy such that "he owned a house converted to oil, / and redecorated by the architect/ of St.
