I do agree that the narrator of the poem does show remorse for the passing of his father, but I believe his reasoning was different. It seems to me that their was a distance between the father and son. When Wallace begins describing these encounters with his father, he seemed alienated. He described him as a "tour guide and translator through the foreign country with its short-tempered natives in their crew cuts and tattoos, who suffered my incompetence with gruffness and disgust." When I think of a tour guide or translator, I think of someone distributes information without having to have an intimate bond. It seems to me Wallace longed to understand the "secret name of everything", but lacked a true connection with his father's world. He begins to come down on himself, describing his lack of understanding for his father's interest as incompetence. So when his father passes, there is remorse for never sharing that interest with his father. It represents more than a knowledge of tools but a father-son connection. In the end he is at a loss for words because he took for granted the opportunities to connect with his father. His father's absence is symbolic for the loss of words he is experiencing. I feel if they were close, those words would never leave him.

I agree with your assesment of this poem. The end is gloomier, but as I read through the poem a few more time I felt that the begining is gloomy and depressing as well. The difference being that he is being critical of himself more in the begining, and in the end he it seems more remorseful. The tools are used both litterally and figuratively, describing the actual tools as well as representing all of the the things he didn't learn from his father when he had the chance. I think the tools are mainly just used to convey the greater message of the sadness and remorse the speaker is experiencing.