On Children

"On Children" is a profound poetic response given by Almustafa (the Prophet) to a woman holding a babe against her bosom. The poem challenges the traditional concept of parental ownership and authority. Gibran begins with the startling statement, "Your children are not your children." He explains that while they come through the parents, they do not belong to them. Children are the "sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself." This means they are independent spiritual beings brought into the world to fulfill their own destinies.

Gibran outlines the limits of parental influence. He states that parents may give children their "love" but not their "thoughts," because children have their own unique thoughts. Parents can provide shelter for the children's "bodies" but not their "souls," for their souls "dwell in the house of tomorrow," a place parents cannot visit, not even in their dreams. He advises parents not to force children to be like them, for "life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday." This emphasizes that each generation must move forward and evolve rather than imitating the past.

The most famous part of the poem is the metaphor of the Archer. Gibran compares God (the Creator) to an Archer, the parents to "bows," and the children to "living arrows." The Archer aims at a mark on the path of the infinite and "bends" the parents (the bows) with His might so that His arrows may go "swift and far." Gibran concludes that the Archer loves both the "arrow that flies" and the "bow that is stable." This suggests that being a "stable bow", a supportive and grounded parent, is a divine and necessary role, even if the child (the arrow) eventually flies away to a destination the parent cannot reach.