The phrase “knock knock” has different implications in various parts of the poem (see Symbols and Motifs). In the first stanza, it refers to the game the speaker plays with his father as a small boy. The father knocks on the door as the boy pretends to sleep, and then the boy jumps into his father’s arms wishing him good morning (Lines 3-7). Then, “my papa he would tell me that he loved me” (Line 8). The game embodies the love between the father and the son and their pleasure in each other’s company. This brief and evocative description of a favorite childhood memory sets the scene for the poem’s main themes: the value of an affectionate bond between father and son, and the pain of its loss.

In the speaker’s experience, that loss occurs early and abruptly. One day “the knock never came” (Line 11), marking the rupture of the bond that means so much to the boy. His confusion grows when his mother takes him on a journey through an unfamiliar and uninviting landscape, riding “past corn fields / On this never ending highway” until they reach “a place of high / Rusty gates” (Lines 12-14).