Compare And Contrast Those Winter Sundays And My Papa's Waltz

As a human being, one tends to be unaware of his surroundings and the ways in which each event in our daily lives has a significant impact on the future. This fact is often shown through the action of one’s parents, and the children coming of age to finally realize the ways of their elders. In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” both speakers undergo a coming of age in which they figure out the true intentions of their respective fathers. Although the theme of both poems, being that one does not often realize what their parents do for them as a child, is very similar, there are inherent differenced that shape each poem. The diction, use of motif, and structure of each poem gives them distinct differences while discussing a common theme.

The major theme of both poems is that one often does not realize their parent’s actions until later in life and gains more insight and experience through age. The poems also draw a significance because both fathers are working men. The greatest difference between the two poems lies in the diction and tone used by each writer. In “Those winter Sundays,” there is a high sense of formal and elevated diction that implies the fact that the father-son relationship in the poem is quite formal, almost similar to that of a teacher and a student. In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the diction is much more dull and relaxed. The speaker uses this diction in order to describe his broken, abusive relationship with his father. It describes the drunken state of the speaker’s father and the lack of knowledge the speaker has at such a young