Analysis of Three Works of Poetry: My Papa's Walts, Our Father, and The Early Purges

852 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Discipline in childhood

Analysis of Three Works of Poetry: My Papa's Walts, Our Father, and The Early Purges

Obviously our childhood is the most important period of our lives, it

determines how we develop and can have a great influence on we will be

like when we grow up. Much of our formation depends on our parents and

how strict they are etc.

I have had a reasonably good childhood. I have had two parents who

have jobs, which means two sets of wages are coming into the house

every week. That has enabled us to have a comfortable lifestyle.

The three poems I will be looking at in this essay are ''My Papa's

Waltz'' ''Our Father'' and ''The Early Purges''. In this essay I will

be looking at childhood and how childhood experiences are recalled by

the different poets and reflected in the way they write their poems.

These poems are disturbing in the way that they all include cruelty.

The first poem that I will look into is ''My Papa's Waltz''. In this

poem a boy seems to be getting hurt by his father we know this because

it says

''You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, Then

waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt''.

but this only seems to happen when the father is drunk because the

poem opens up with the observation that

''the whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy''

The father might possibly be a very violent man we see this when it

says which tell us that the dad likes a fight or two the poet recalls

how

''the hand which held my wrist was battered on one knuckle'' and

''at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle''.

Theodore Roethke writes

''you beat time on my head with a palm...

... middle of paper ...

...home and sins like there's no tomorrow!! Evidence of this is

that it says

"When we got home he'd take off his collar, and his shoes and his

Sunday-special braces; and we'd whisper he's not like God So that he'd

belt us for the noise, and we'd yell''.

I have now discussed all three poems with you and I have to say that

my favourite by far is ''The Early Purges'' I picked early purges

because of its style of writing , Heaney uses the type of language

that we would use in everyday life. It is far easier to understand

because I am used to reading and saying these words. I also like the

poem because of its story line I like the way that at the start the

boy was scared of seeing animals being killed but near the end and the

boy is almost comfortable with killing animals because he says ''I

just shrug ''Bloody pups''.

Show More
Related

  • Literary Techniques In Li-Young Lee

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem, A Story, is written in the third person point of view. Thereby, allowing the audience to grasp onto the sentimental emotions of the father. The story begins with the depiction of the father as a “sad...man who is asked

    Read More

  • Parent Child Relationships in Before You Were Mine, Kid, On My First Sonne, and The Song Of The Old Mother

    2228 Words  | 5 Pages

    the poem On My First Sonne, the father loves his son a lot and feels

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Theodore Roethke's My Papa's Waltz and Robert Hayden's Those Winter Sundays

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    The events of our childhood and interactions with our parents is an outline of our views as parents ourselves. Although Robert Hayden’s relationship with his father differentiates from the relationship of Theodore Roethke and his father, they are both pondering back to their childhood and expressing the events in a poem. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those winter Sundays” provide the reader with an image of a childhood event which states how fathers are being viewed by their children. These poems reflect upon the relationship of the father and child when the child was a youth. Both Roethke and Hayden both indicate that their fathers weren’t perfect although they look back admiringly at their fathers’ actions. To most individuals, a father is a man that spends time with and takes care of them which gains him love and respect. An episode of Roethke’s childhood is illustrated in “My Papa’s Waltz”. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, the father comes home showing signs of alcohol and then begins waltzing with his son. Roethke states that the father’s hands are “battered on one knuckle”. The mother was so upset about the dancing that she did nothing other than frown. At the end of the day, the father waltzed the son to bed. “Those Winter Sundays” is based on a regular Sunday morning. The father rises early to wake his family and warm the house. To warm the house, he goes out in the cold and splits wood to start a fire. This is a poem about an older boy looking back to his childhood and regretting that “No one ever thanked him.” In Those Winter Sundays'; by Robert Hayden, the poet also relinquishes on a regular occurrence in his childhood. On Sunday mornings, just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the cold darkness. He ...

    Read More

  • Untitled and Advice to My Son, by Peter Meinke

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Peter’s poem Untitled is about a father, possibly Peter’s, who is writing this poem to his 10 year old son. This father is apologizing for all the hurt he has caused his son. He’s caused this by not being there for him or being able to understand him. It also says in this poem that the son may have been both physically and emotionally hurt by his father. Finally, this poem ends with the father saying that he wishes that he could have told his son more often that he was beautiful and cares about him, because apparently he didn’t tell him enough.

    Read More

  • Comparing My Papa’s Waltz and Listening to grownups quarrel

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Roethkes Use of Tone

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    A. "My Papa's Waltz". , Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry And a lot of drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Ed. -.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes's I, Too and Countee Cullen's Incident

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,

    Read More

  • A Literary Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and

    Read More

  • My Papa's Waltz And The Ballad Of Birmingham Family Bonds

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    Family bonds are very important which can determine the ability for a family to get along. They can be between a mother and son, a father and son, or even a whole entire family itself. To some people anything can happen between them and their family relationship and they will get over it, but to others they may hold resentment. Throughout the poems Those Winter Sundays, My Papa’s Waltz, and The Ballad of Birmingham family bonds are tested greatly. In Those Winter Sundays the relationship being shown is between the father and son, with the way the son treats his father. My Papa’s Waltz shows the relationship between a father and son as well, but the son is being beaten by his father. In The Ballad of Birmingham the relationship shown is between

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman Poetry Analysis

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Poetry comes in many different shapes and forms. There are a plethora of American authors that use various writing techniques to transform their ideas into works of art. Walter “Walt” Whitman is one of the most famous authors that used a variety of styles in many of his poems. Many of his works of art affected the population and has influenced the country. He has created multiple poems that have become popular over the years and will be remembered for years to come. Walt Whitman comes from a self-deprecating family that has a tremendous adoration for their home country, America. His father took him out of school when he was young to help with the household funds. As he grew older, Whitman was in and out of different occupations

    Read More

  • The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and

    Read More

  • Analysis of Poems by Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast My Sonnys Blues And My Papa's Blues

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is no greater bond then a boy and his father, the significant importance of having a father through your young life can help mold you to who you want to become without having emotional distraught or the fear of being neglected. This poem shows the importance in between the lines of how much love is deeply rooted between these two. In a boys life he must look up to his father as a mentor and his best friend, the father teaches the son as much as he can throughout his experience in life and build a strong relationship along the way. As the boy grows up after learning everything his father has taught him, he can provide help for his father at his old-age if problems were to come up in each others

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Father and Child in Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad by Jan Heller Levi and In the Well by Andrew Hudgins

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    The simultaneous distance and closeness within the relationship between the father and the child are inevitable even in the most tragic and happy events in life. The poems “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad” by Jan Heller Levi and “In the Well” by Andrew Hudgins are both about the closeness and distance in a father and child relationship. Both poems are written in first person, or in the child’s point of view to emphasize the thoughts of distance and the experience of childhood thinking to the readers. The poems both use similar literary devices such as motifs and imagery to illustrate and accentuate the ideas of each event that the narrator, a child, experiences. Similarities between both poems are the use of water as a motif of the barrier to being farther away from the father, and the use of different synonyms for the word, father, to indicate the amount of distance at each point in the poems. On the other hand, each poem takes its route of distance in completely opposite directions. “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad” by Jan Heller Levi and “In the Well” by Andrew Hudgins accommodate the similarities for the use of the same motif, water, and the use of several synonyms for “dad” throughout the poems, but also differentiate because they proceed in opposite directions from the beginning to the end.

    Read More

  • Parent and Son Relationship in one of Nye, Naomi Shihab´s Poems

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.

    Read More

More about Analysis of Three Works of Poetry: My Papa's Walts, Our Father, and The Early Purges

Open Document