I have recently read two pieces of poetry and I am writing to recommend them to you because of how impacting they were to me. The first poem, called “My Papa’s Waltz”, is written by Theodore Roethke. This poem tells the story of a father who comes home one evening to spend time with his son by waltzing with him. The second poem, by Robert Hayden, is called “Those Winter Sundays”, and it is about a father who rises every morning to make a fire for his family and polish their shoes, but never receives any sign of thankfulness from his family. I recommend reading these two poems together because they complement each other quite nicely by presenting both sides to the father and son relationship. I really enjoyed reading these poems because they …show more content…
The speaker of “My Papa’s Waltz” creates a vivid example of the fun we can have with our parents when he describes the waltz that the father and son are dancing by saying, “We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf” (lines 5-6). I love the playful language that Roethke uses to describe this scene and Roethke’s words paint a clear and happy picture in my head of a father gallantly dancing with his son. This picture makes me think of all the joyful experiences that I have had with my own father and how much I appreciate those moments. My favorite lines in this poem, the last two, demonstrate the unconditional love that exists between the father and son in this poem. Throughout the entire poem, the narrator hints that the son has an underlying fear of his father, but in the last two lines of “My Papa’s Waltz” the narrator destroys any doubt that the son is afraid of his father by saying, “[You] waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16). The fact that the boy is still clinging to his father in this line helps me draw the conclusion that the little boy loves his father and enjoys spending time with him, just as I love spending time with my …show more content…
I especially like this poem because the father in this poem reminds me of my own, in the sense that my father is hardworking and loves his family, just as the father in this poem does. I believe that Hayden conveys a very important message to us when he explains how hardworking the father in this poem is and how “No one ever thanked him” (5). Often in life we take for granted all the things that our parents do for us and I believe this poem demonstrates that we should not allow grudges to keep us from appreciating everything that our parents do for us. At the end of the “Those Winter Sundays” the narrator says, “What did I know, what did I know / Of loves austere and lonely offices?” (13-14). This line really makes me think about how sometimes we allow anger to creep into our lives and keep us from seeing how unconditionally our parents love us, and often we wait until it is too late to reciprocate that
just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the
The most notable qualities of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are the tone and language of the poem which convey the nostalgia adult author feels thinking about the time spent with his father. In the title narrator’s father is affectionately referred to as “Papa” making the impression that the main character and his father are close. The use of possessive pronoun “my” contributes to the overall impression that the father holds special place in the narrator’s heart. As word “waltz” in the title implies the poem gives account of the festive occasion in which the narrator’s father takes part.
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden tells about a child’s indifferent relationship with his father. The poem explains all of the things the father did for his child without being asked or thanked. It then jumps to the child’s point of view and tells what they say as a child as to what they see now as an adult looking back. The child, who is now grown, shows signs of regret as he looks back at how he treated his father, who sounds to have passed away. Finally, in the final lines the speaker realizes that the father’s relationship was filled with love.
“Those Winter Sundays” tells of Robert Hayden’s father and the cold mornings his father endures to keep his family warm in the winters. In “Digging” Heaney is sitting in the window watching his father do hard manual labor, which has taken a toll on his body. In “My Father as a Guitar” Espada goes to the doctors office with his father and is sitting in the office with his dad when the doctor tells him he has to take pain killers and to stop working because his body was growing old and weak. The authors of the poems all look at their fathers the same; they look at them with much respect and gratitude. All three poems tell of the hard work the dads have to do to keep their family fed and clothed. “The landlord, here a symbol of all the mainstream social institutions that hold authority over the working class” (Constantakis.) Espada’s father is growing old and his health is deteriorating quickly but his ability to stop working is not in his own hands, “I can’t the landlord won’t let me” (774.) “He is separated from the homeland, and his life in the United States is far from welcoming” (Constantakis.) Espada’s Grandmother dies in Puerto Rico and the family learns this by a lett...
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a representation of the journey toward reconciliation of the love and the fear that the speaker, a young boy, has for his father, and is an extended metaphor for the way that we balance the good and bad in our lives. Whilst reading this poem it is impossible to determine definitively whether it is truly about a dance or if the speaker is actually being abused. However, I don’t believe that it really matters either way. Actually, I believe it is this ambiguity and push and pull between the two extremes that creates the overall sense of struggle that comes with the reconciliation of the facets of the father and son’s relationship. This dance between love and fear is accentuated by Roethke’s use of ambiguous diction, end rhyme, and iambic trimeter.
The father in “My Papa’s Waltz” is portrayed by the narrator as one who neglects his responsibilities of ensuring safety and being a positive role model. Using many examples and implying this through writing techniques, the narrator represents the father in a way other than a loving dad. Despite the use of certain words such as “papa” and “waltz,” the overall connotation represented throughout the poem seems to concentrate more heavily on the negative aspects of the narrator’s memories. For these reasons, one can conclude that the poem aims to illuminate the immaturity and irresponsibility of the
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
The poems “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke contain a multitude of different symbols, diction, and figurative language that contribute to the themes of the poems. Although the themes are not identical in the two poems, they contain a basic gist that unites the theme of love and admiration between child and father. The fathers in both poems are extremely similar, described with blue collar, industrial characteristics and a unique way of displaying affection. The theme of love in Hayden’s, “Those Winter Sundays” is similar to the theme of admiration in Roethke’s, “My Papa’s Waltz” in the sense of how a father and child relationship connects through love.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
In terms of Romanticism, the idea of transcendence seems to be present in the poem in regard to the fact that the father-son relationship is beyond words. The relationship exists, but it is difficult to articulate. Also the idea that Hayden is rising to a deeper understanding of his relationship with his father is present. There are lines in the poem that state:
In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” the author, Robert Hayden, uses descriptive and colloquial diction to further emphasize the harsh and lonely tasks his father performed to show the love he had for his son in an unconventional way. Hayden uses cacophonous words such as “cracked”, “splintering”, “ached” and “banked” to stress the stark chores his father did without being asked or thanked. Instead of traditional displays of affection like hugs and kisses, his father is humble when doing gritty work to support his family. The author also uses concrete and denotative words when describing everything his father did up until the last line where he uses abstract words such as “love”, “austere” and “lonely”. This further demonstrates the limited perspective
Some poets see their father with a new found appreciation. For example, in Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” the narrator expresses his appreciation for his father when he poses the question: “What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Hayden 13-14). As a child, it is hard to gain an appreciation for one’s father because one does not think about how much a father does for his child. When the speaker grows older, he reflects on his childhood and realizes how much his father has done for him. Everything that the father did for his son and family was done out of love, and the father did not gain any recognition at all. One example of the father helping his family is when he builds the fires to keep the household warm:
While most of us think back to memories of our childhood and our relationships with our parents, we all have what he would call defining moments in our views of motherhood or fatherhood. It is clearly evident that both Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden have much to say about the roles of fathers in their two poems as well. While the relationships with their fathers differ somewhat, both men are thinking back to a defining moment in their childhood and remembering it with a poem. "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" both give the reader a snapshot view of one defining moment in their childhood, and these moments speak about the way these children view their fathers. Told now years later, they understand even more about these moments.
For my poetry paper I chose to examine poetry from the family album. The family album stood out to me significantly because I thoroughly enjoyed all of the poems because I had a personal connection with it. Family has always been an important part of my life and I think this particular album speaks volume. This album has many levels to it, some deeper than others. I feel that from reading poetry, it expands our ability to think and form ideas that we would have not thought about before. Poetry gives readers the ability to make connections on a deeper level and see things from a different perspective. The two poems that spoke to me in this album specifically were “Those Winter Sundays” By Robert Hayden and “Begotten” by Andrew Hudgins. These two poems are both similar because they are from a son’s point of view, talking about their parent(s). “Those Winter Sundays” was one of my all-time favorite poems from this album because it shows a hard working father who is dedicated to his family, but does not get any recognition for his hard work.
his mother at all, which could also be a hint that maybe she died, since the father toke over