Duty is a word defined in several ways by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It is used to denote “a moral or legal obligation; the service required under specified conditions; and obligatory tasks, service, or functions that arise from one’s position”. It is a word used to speak of the performance of obligations to others in some fashion. In the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden; “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen; and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, duty to family, to a nation, and to ancestors will be discussed and its effects on the characters in the poems.
In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden begins his remembrance of his father on a winter Sunday, a day of rest for most working class peoples in the era this poem was written. In the first stanza, he shows his father, even on his day of rest getting up out of a warm bed, to put his clothes on “in the blueblack cold”. The man is getting up early so he can get the house warm for his family before they start to stir for the day. Mr. Hayden helps the reader to see his father: a man who labors with his hands out in the cold through the week, “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” to provide for his family. The man can be seen quietly moving about the house, banking the fire as he prepares for the day with nary a grumble.
As a parent, duty calls at all hours of the day and night. Tasks are completed “behind the scenes” such as making a warm fire or going off to a day of hard work where hands are “cracked” and “ache with labor in the weekday weather”. Bringing home a paycheck and providing food and shelter are all duties parents complete each day, yet are not particularly noticed by their children until there is a problem. M...
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...es with a price and it is truly a service to others.
Works Cited
“duty.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online, 29 October 2008 http://www.meriam-webster.com/dictionary/duty
Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays”. 1966. Literature. Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th Ed. Avenue of the Americas, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 764.
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum Est”. 1963. Literature. Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th Ed. Avenue of the Americas, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 1166.
Browning, Robert. “My Last Duchess”. 1842. Literature. Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th Ed. Avenue of the Americas, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 781, 782.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. 1st ED. 10 East 53rd Street, New York: Harper-Collins, 2003. 91.
In conclusion, the brilliant novel “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster is a fantastic novel that helps grasp the basic ideas and structure that makes up a work of literature. Foster’s laid-back attitude made a major contribution to the great tone of the novel, and made it easier to understand. Many connections were included in the novel, along with some great quotes. After reading this novel, I have a better idea of what to look for when reading a novel.
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “My Father as a Guitar” by Martin Espada, and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney are three poems that look into the past of the authors and dig up memories of the authors fathers. The poems contain similar conflicts, settings, and themes that are essential in helping the reader understand the heartfelt feelings the authors have for their fathers. With the authors of the three poems all living the gust of their life in the 1900’s, their biographical will be similar and easier to connect with each other.
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden is a poem about a how the author is recalling how his father would wake up early on Sundays, a day which is usually a reserved as a day of rest by many, to fix a fire for his family. The mood of this poem is a bit sad. It portrays a father, who deeply cares for his family but doesn't seem to show it by emotions, words, or touching. It also describes a home that isn't very warm in feelings as well as the title" Those Winter Sundays" The author describes the father as being a hard worker, in the line "…with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday…", but still even on Sundays--the day of rest, the father works at home to make sure the house is warm for his family. The "blueblack cold described in the poem is now warmed by a father's love. This poem describes the author reminiscing what did not seem obvious at the time, the great love of his father, and the author's regretting to thank his father for all that he did.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Literature and the Writing Process. By Elizabeth McMahan., et al. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2014. 695-96. Print.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton anthology of English literature. 9th ed., A, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pp
The central conflict in Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays”, is the unfortunate realization that the speaker never truly thanked or appreciated his father’s sacrifices when he was a child. After growing up, taking on responsibilities, and achieving a rehabilitated understanding of the world through experience, Hayden expresses his ingratitude that often accompanies with youth. The first line of the first stanza writes, “Sundays too my father got up early/and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (Hayden, 17). Out of these two lines, the word “too” is filled with importance because Sunday’s are dedicated to either religious practices, or rest for a working man. Fortunately, this was not his father’s case as his father would wake up early in order to perform his loving and self-sacrificing duties.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to
I read a critical article on Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”. I confess it was harder to find something in the NCLC’s than I would’ve thought. There was a considerable accumulation of critiques on Browning’s work, but very little on “My Last Duchess”.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Abrams, M.H., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1993
The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ninth Edition. Stephen Greenblatt, eds. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 2308. Print.
Tucker, Martin. Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism. Volume 4. Frederick Ungar Publishing Company. New York. 1967.
... Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. 1166-86. Print.