My Father's Hats

Irwin demonstrates how children bring wonder and joy to mundane adult life. Irwin’s speaker had a childhood ritual of exploring his father’s hats on Sundays, hinting that he enjoys the activity because he repeats and remembers it.

The speaker would take a chair and enter into the closet, an adult space (Lines 1-3). A closet promises privacy and a sense of identity since it holds clothes and other possessions. As the speaker “reach[es] higher” into the closet, he changes the unmoving stored hats into an active, growing forest (Lines 3-6). By linking the scent his father’s hair left on the hats to the forest, Irwin’s younger self transforms the everyday, familiar world into an outdoor landscape teeming with adventure (Lines 7-13).

Through the lens of “climbing a tree,” the speaker frames “being / held” as magical, exciting, and desired rather than a routine taken for granted (Lines 12-13). A yellow fruit growing from the tree represents gaining more insight into father, an enticing end goal for his journey (Line 14).

Irwin celebrates childhood imaginations’ ability to generate awe and happiness. He also mourns its loss by contrasting it with the speaker’s adulthood imagination at the poem’s end. While the speaker “now” still senses “the godsome / air” that occurs when he thinks about his father, the other images he calls up are less stable and verdant (Lines 14-16).