In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”, the subject matter is touching on the loneliness of being a loving father or parent. It is about a child realizing how hard their father works and labors to keep them cared for and warm, and how little that father is acknowledged, appreciated, and thanked for his work. The language used by Robert Hayden in his poem is appropriate to the subject matter. It is appropriate because it conveys the tone of loneliness. Some of the poetic devices used in “Those Winter Sundays” are alliteration, assonance, and metaphors. The alliteration can be seen in line 2 and 3 with the letter c in “clothes”, “cold”, and “cracking”. In line four, the letter w is used in “weekday weather”, in line 5 the letter b
The poems “Forgotten” and “Hanging Fire” demonstrate the possibilities of the similarities and differences that two different topics can represent. The two poems ‘Forgotten” and the poem “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde, share a similarity of a parent's absence. In “Forgotten” the text states, “...nobody else’s dad had gone away nine years ago./ Nobody else’s dad had been so loved by a four-year-old./ And so forgotten by one/ now/ thirteen.”
Alliterations can be found in the sixth line: {\tql}\underline{p}ass \underline{p}estilence{\tqr} or the seventh:{\tql}\underline{b}ent, \underline{b}lack{\tqr}. The two internal rhymes
Poetry is a timeless form of storytelling that can connect people of all generations, races, and religions. Rosemary Dobson’s “Cock Crow” and Gwen Harwood’s “Suburban Sonnet”, both explore the idea of motherhood being a timeless sacrifice made by women every day. Harwood’s sonnet exposes the audience to the reality of a mother’s life where she has accepted the sacrifices made for her children, whereas Dobson’s quatrains show the journey of a mother stuck in a conflict between staying with her daughter and discovering herself. These ideas are portrayed through the various language techniques and stylistic features used by each poet.
The man woke up in the middle of the night, and his first reflex is to reach out for his child. As he reached for his child, the man showed how he has hope by physically reaching for what gives him it. In his world, the boy is a beacon of hope and life in what is otherwise a fruitless and deserted land. As a father, his main focus of life is to care for and love his child. By giving concrete examples of the man’s behavior, the author characterises the man as a caring and loving father, uses this to show that hope is necessary in a dark and desolate world.
Throughout the poem, the speaker uses his poetic style to reveal a friendly yet distanced relationship that the speaker and father share together. Beginning the poem with “Thirty-three years of coughing thick factory air,” the speaker introduces his father as a diligent factory worker (1-2, Daniels). The use of the alliteration “thirty-three” in this line, strategically draws the reader’s attention to just how long the dad subjects himself to such straining labor in order to provide for his family, showing a love from the father for his child (1). The speaker continues with “of drifting to sleep through the heavy ring of machinery, of twelve hour days” painting the image of the father working nonstop, and as a result, repeatedly falling asleep on the job (3-4). By saying, “In my sleep,
“My Papa’s Waltz,” written by Theodore Roethke, tells of a boy's waltz with his father. While light on the surface, the words hint that there may be a darker nature to the poem. The father, who is a hard-working laborer, has different sides to him that leave the son with ambivalent feelings. Told from the first person point of view of the son, the speaker describes the details of a waltz while his mother simply stands to the side. Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” uses an extended metaphor and carefully placed syntax in order to portray the complex relationship between the speaker and his father with a light tone.
It just so happens I read this on a day where I didn’t know if I would make it thru this long journey of school to fight for change in my community. But Al ‘s words proved me to continue. Missing fathers were mentioned multiple times in this poem. “Fathers unaccounted missing hours”, “the little girls who don’t know their
Everyone has a father, whether their relationship with him is good or bad. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word father as follows: a man in relation to his natural child or children. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden are two poems with themes set around a father. These poems deal with accounts of the poets’ fathers as they reminisce about certain scenes from their childhood. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays” show similarities and differences in structure, literary elements, and central idea.
He describes the anguish and pain of being separated from family members, such as when he is taken away from his mother as a young child. For instance, he writes, "I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night" (Chapter 1). This emotional appeal is particularly effective in eliciting sympathy and anger from readers.
Throughout “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays”, the author’s reflect on how their fathers were hard workers, although each memory is emotionally different. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke remembers his father coming home from work and his hands “Was battered on one knuckle” (Line 10). Even though the father had a long day at work, the boy recounts him coming home and dancing with him. Whereas “Those Winter Sundays”, Hayden recalls his fathers hard work by describing his “Cracked hands that ached/
Every story consists of different elements, such as characters, plotlines, and settings. Nonetheless, many stories portray the same messages or ideas. “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, depicts a reckless father who is loved by his child, while “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, depicts a hardworking father whose child is indifferent to him. Though the poems depict exceptionally different childhoods, both contribute to the idea that perceptions of parents alter as one grows into adulthood. Both poems use harsh words and critical tones in order to convey this notion, however in “My Papa’s Waltz,” they signify the recklessness of the father and how the narrator perceives his father as an adult, while in “Those Winter Sundays,” they
The man thinks he is way to young to lose his father. Due to that he pities himself since he is alone. His father left him and the speaker does not think he deserves that. Within Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Alone” many different poetic elements are used.
Comparing and contrasting Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, one finds the two poems are similar with their themes of abuse, yet contrasting with how the themes are portrayed. Furthermore, the speaker 's feelings toward their fathers’ in each poem contrast. One speaker was hurt by the father and the other speaker was indifferent about how he was treated by his father. The fathers’ feelings toward the children are also different despite how each treated the child. Both poems accurately portray the parent-child relationships within an abusive home, even if they have different
In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”
In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” the poem seems to take place around the year 1943. Judging from the illustration above the poem, it looks like the family is very poor and have very little space. The picture shows that the mother is serving food to the boy and girl, from that point of view it looks like they have to share which shows that they struggle to provide enough food for each individual. As opposed to the poem “Piano” there is no illustration but the speaker does say “hymns in the cozy parlor”. The speaker using the word parlor shows that the family must have lived in a well kept home.