26/08/2026
Lebanese-American poet, author, and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), best known for writing The Prophet.
ON CHILDREN - published in 1923.
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,For they have their own thoughts.You may house their bodies but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."
What Does the Poem Mean?
Gibran uses a beautiful picture to explain how parents and children are connected. He tells parents to think of themselves as a bow and their children as arrows.
Children are separate individuals: Gibran says that children do not belong to their parents. Parents bring children into the world, but each child has their own unique mind, future, and soul.
The role of a parent: A parent's job is to love, protect, and support their children. However, parents should not try to force children to think exactly like them or live out the parents' unfulfilled dreams.The Archer (God or Nature): The "archer" uses the parent (the bow) to launch the child (the arrow) into the future. A strong, steady parent helps the child fly straight, fast, and far into a tomorrow that the parents will never see.
Self -portrait-
