In the course of a young man’s life, a fatherly figure is pivotal for the maturity and adulthood a young man needs to become a well minded wise man. In both poems, “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa’s Waltz,” the authors reminisce on a past event that occurred to them in their lives. These events are engraved vividly in their minds and both are having to due with their fathers. “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, talks about a memory that he wished wasn't real; a sense of regret in this poem is the main feeling that we as the readers feel. In “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, we see a completely different situation. In this past memory, the poet’s child-self is filled with fear and dread and we can see that this situation empowers the poets past. Between the two poets, they both don't deserve the situation they are in. Instead, if they were to somehow ‘switch’ childhoods, these poems would have not been written, and each poet would be better off.
“Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, talks about his childhood and how his father went out of his way to please his boy and others, but never did he show any gratitude or appreciation. Now as an adult, the poet starts to feel guilty and miserable for never letting his father know he was a good man. The poem starts out by telling us the situations the poet’s father would go out into to do things for others, yet no one ever thanked him, he was unrecognized.
Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. (Hayden 1-5)
No one ever thanked his father, including himself, and the regret and remorse eats away at the poe...
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...a poem of his father would have never been written. Since he didn't care about his father at youth, he wouldn't have cared for his ‘switched’ drunk father, so he wouldn't have been affected by it much. As for the poet for “My Papa’s Waltz,” he deserves the father like that of the one from “Those Winter Sundays.” Because the poet was such a loving and caring child, having a loving and caring father would have been perfect for not only the poet, but also for the father. If this poet were to have his ‘switched’ father, he wouldn't have written a poem like so. He would have had a much happier childhood because having a caring and loving father seemed to me, from the poem, that this was the only thing the child wished for.
Works Cited
Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound & Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
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.
Robert Hayden poem ”Those Winter Sundays” explores his father as an unsung hero and it also presents an acknowledgement of poets lack of gratitude for his father. The speaker reflects on the childhood memories of his father and goes on to find all kinds of disabilities he had in terms of realization regarding the pain father bared for the poet. Story is very emotional in the way that the speaker reveals sacrifices of his father during his childhood throughout the poem. It is agonizing and the words used in the poem are really an expression of desperation and sadness as he is really missing that time. There are a number of sacrifices made by the father during the harsh winter season of writer’s childhood. In his childhood he was not actually aware about the harshness of those lovely and affectionate feelings that his father had about him. In the poem ”Those Winter Sundays” Robert Hayden uses imagery and sound devices to portray his father as an unsung hero and to acknowledge his own lack of gratitude
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and thoughts about a particular theme. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz, and Ruth Whitman’s poem, Listening to grownups quarreling, the theme of childhood is conveyed through their details, although we can neither see a face nor hear a voice. These poems are very much alike in their ideas of how their memories pertain to the attitudes of their childhood; however, the wording and tones of the two poems are distinct in how they present their memories. The two poems can be compared and contrasted through the author’s use of tone, imagery, and recollection of events; which illustrate each author’s memories of childhood.
Childhood experiences seem to be the ones that are recollected most vividly throughout a person's life. Almost everyone can remember some aspect of his or her childhood experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike. Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz" suggests even further that this concept could be true. The dance described in this poem illustrates an interaction between father and child that contains more than the expected joyous, loving attitude between the two characters. Roethke's tone in this work exhibits the blended, yet powerful emotions that he, as a grown man, feels when looking back on this childhood experience. The author somewhat implicates feelings of resentment fused with a loving reliance with his father.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The lack of verbal communication between his father and himself can be seen in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." The overall impression of the poem is that love can be communicated in other ways than through words; it can be communicated through everyday, mundane actions. For example, in the poem, the father awakens on "Sundays too" to warm the house with a fire and polish his sons shoes. There is a sense of coldness in the beginning of the poem through the lines:
Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” addresses how hard work and love go unnoticed and unappreciated. Hayden uses visual and auditory imagery to convey that the father worked had for nothing in return and “no one ever thanked him.” The son understands the great measures that the father goes for his son and questions his own knowledge of the work as he sits and “the rooms were warm.” The speaker mentions how his father, even on Sundays, woke up early to leave in the “blueblack cold… with cracked hands that ached” and the father still made the time to “polish my [the speaker] good shoes as well.” Hayden portrays the image of the cold and the appearance of the hands to construct the love that the father shares for his son without the
In Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” show that children have a hard time understanding why a parent is distant the speaker says “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on/ in the blueblack cold,”(Line 1-2) the father even gets up very early on Sundays as in the “blueblack cold” the speaker seems to not understand why the father does this why does he get up so early day after day? He seems to ask himself. The speaker observes that “ …With cracked hands the ached from labor in the weekday weather/ banked fires blazed”(Line 3-5) the father works hard for his family his hands are cracked and sore and he still gets up earlier then the rest of his family and makes the fire blaze to warm the house for them.
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.
Analysis of Three Works of Poetry: My Papa's Walts, Our Father, and The Early Purges
In the late nineteen forties, Theodore Roethke emerged with a poem that has been the source of much debate. "My Papa's Waltz," is an account of a relationship between son and father. Alas, many readers who are exposed to this piece fail to note the love present in the connection of the characters. In an attempt to illuminate the author's true intention several factors must be examined. After several examinations of Roethke's poem as well as learning of his childhood it is evident that this poem does not suggest an abusive environment, but is an appreciative account of the love and playfulness between the characters. Therefore, a successful interpretation of this poem will look beyond the four stanzas and study not only the history of the writing, but the life of the poet.
It is commonly found that as someone matures they begin to appreciate their loved ones increasingly. In his poem Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden describes the sacrifices a father makes for his family, and the lack of appreciation the speaker shows for him. It is learned early in the poem that the father works a labor-intensive job during the week that is hard on his body. Despite his hurting hands and presumably exhausted body, he wakes up on his day of rest, Sunday, to warm up the house and be a desirable father. While the father seems to be performing his paternal duties perfectly on the surface, it is presented to the reader that the household is not always as warm.
The mood of the poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” written by Robert Hayden is regretful. The poet describes a cold winter Sunday morning staying in bed until the house is warm. The poet expressed sympathy for his father who got up early on a cold Sunday morning...
Many writers use powerful words to portray powerful messages. Whether a writer’s choice of diction is cheerful, bitter, or in Robert Hayden’s case in his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” dismal and painful, it is the diction that formulates the tone of the piece. It is the diction which Hayden so properly places that allows us to read the poem and picture the cold tension of his foster home, and envision the barren home where his poem’s inspiration comes from. Hayden’s tumultuous childhood, along with the unorthodox relationships with his biological parents and foster parents help him to create the strong diction that permeates the dismal tone of “Those Winter Sundays.” Hayden’s ability to both overcome his tribulations and generate enough courage