To what does the title "First Lesson" refer to?

First Lesson by Phyllis McGinley





The thing to remember about fathers is, they're men.


A girl has to keep it in mind.


They are dragon-seekers, bent on improbable rescues.


Scratch any father, you find


Someone chock-full of qualms and romantic terrors,


Believing change is a threat--


Like your first shoes with heels on, like your first bicycle


It took such months to get.


Walk in strange woods, they warn you about the snakes there.


Climb, and they fear you'll fall.


Books, angular boys, or swimming in deep water--


Fathers mistrust them all.


Men are the worriers. It is difficult for them


To learn what they must learn:


How you have a journey to take and very likely,


For a while, will not return.

To what does the title "First Lesson" refer to?
McGinley’s "First Lesson" is about the daughter’s views to her father’s attitudes of overprotective. By first lesson she means its the first lesson she learnt at any early stage of life, aslo because he was one of her first models to follow





She thinks her father is worry too much. She uses simile to convey this kind of thinking, she says, "Believing changes is a threat, like your first shoes with heels on, like your first Bicycle". In the whole poem, she uses rhythm scene of "ABCB" to convey her attitude of understanding toward her father. She knows the fathers are the worriers because of their children. They concern and care about their children.



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