Topic: The complex relations between fathers and children in the poetry of Robert Hayden, Rhina Espillat, and Theodore Roethke Thesis: the historical backgrounds and family settings of Robert Hayden, Rhina Espillat, and Theodore Roethke have contributed to the expression of complex father and children relationships in some of their poems. Williams, Pontheolla T. Robert Hayden: A Critical Analysis of His Poetry. University of Illinois Press, 1987. This book provides an accurate analysis of the poetry by Robert Hayden showing the common base and originality strength from his virtues. Williams gives a critical analysis of the poetry by considering all the aspects of Hayden’s personal history. Williams writes of the accounts Hayden and the influence his history on the themes of his work in poetry. The book identifies elements that have been used by Hayden in his poetry and describes them while still trying to combine them into a magnificent whole. The themes depicted in the book are an expression of the commendable expertise of Williams in critical theory. The book will be an important source to understand the complex relationships between fathers and children as brought out in the poetry of Robert Hayden. Aldama, Frederick …show more content…
La Belle describes the cultural beliefs and tradition that Roethke created for himself leading up to the special influences in his poems. The author explores the contribution of Roethke to other works of poetry by other poets. Additionally, the book explores the changes in the responses of Roethke to the past literary from the early writing to final sequences in poetry. The original texts displayed in the book provide a roadmap into the reason behind the concepts in poems by Roethke. The book will be resourceful in understanding the contemporary family relationships expressed in Roethke’s
Walter Dean Myers won the Coretta Scott King award for African American author five times. Myers was originally named Walter Milton Myers but he adopted the middle name “Dean” to honor Florence and Herbert the parents that raised him after his mother passed away when he was 18 months and his father sent him to live with Florence and Herbert Dean. Walter Dean Myers was born in August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia and died July 1, 2014 in Manhattan, New York city, New York. When he was a child his life involved his neighborhood and church, the neighborhood protected him and the church him, and also had a speech impediment that made communicating very difficult for him.
The author’s mother appreciation of poetry and music influences Moss’s aspirations of becoming a writer. The drunken father of the
Poets and other writers often express life through their works and characters. Some poems convey a depressing, gloomy attitude towards life, while others show the world as a joyful and simple place. Two skilled creative writers, Edgar Lee Masters and Edwin Arlington Robinson, wrote detailed poems describing the lives of characters with extremely different perspectives on life. Many obvious differences can be identified between the lives of Robinson’s Miniver Cheevy and Masters’s Lucinda Matlock. Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem about Miniver Cheevy paints life as miserable and useless.
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,
It seems that there is no reason to keep surviving in a world which no hopes remain, a father still perseveres to survive with his son and they are sustained by their love. On their journey, the father sacrifices a lot to protect his son and strongly shows his parental love. In this book, the father and the son have great
As one single poem can intrigue the everyday college student, one can imagine the obsessive nature that one poem can have on the mind. The poem, circulating, round and round in the mind, leaving one to ponder the day away all because one poem, as one can be left questioning, such as in "Prayer" by Galway Kinnell. However, even if someone were to be obsessed with one poem, there are ones who are intrigued by not just one, but two, maybe dozens of poems, all by the same author that had them intrigued since the first poem looming in their head. Nevertheless, as one may ponder across an entire work of a single author, this pondering may lead to one who is passionate about the entire work of an author to publish articles about someone and their work respectively. In the article, "Galway Kinnell: Transfigured Dread," by Edward Hirsch, the pondering over the entire works of Galway Kinnel are discussed in great detail.
The conflicting interests of the mother and the father result in a situation where one must make a sacrifice in order to preserve the connection in the family. The flat depressed tone of the poem reflects the mother’s unhappiness and frustration about having to constantly
In the play Antigone and the movie Dead Poets Society, the consequences of pressure, control, and a lack of understanding in father-son relationships are illustrated through the mental health of Haimon and Neil. Playwright, Sophocles and screenwriter, Tom Schulman are able to effectively demonstrate the immense pressure that can be put on children in father-son relationships through Mr. Perry and Creon’s interactions with their sons. When Mr. Nolan speaks to Mr. Perry regarding his high expectations for Neil, Mr Perry addresses his son, claiming that “ he won’t disappoint us. Right Neil?” (Schulman).
Oscillating between the progression of life through the memories and experience of an individual is expressed through Gwen Harwood’s poem The Violets. The poem encapsulates the human experience as both integral to the formation of our perceptions of life and the timelessness that it provides to the audience. Gwen Harwood is able to create a text that goes beyond the way we respond, creating a deeper awareness of the complexity of human attitudes and behaviours. The matrilineal theme reveals that the core of the poem The Violets stem through childhood memories as a component to reveal our own personal reconciliations.
The relationship between father and son is one that is both sacred, yet complex as each side of the relationship faces hardships. This relationship between a son and his role model, a father and his child, is one, has its ups, but one must also know it has downs. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke’s use of ambiguity through diction allows room for the audience to interpret the text in a positive or a negative way, representing the relationship between a father and a son, which on the outside can be interpreted in an either positive or a negative way. Roethke’s use of diction creates an element of confusion for the audience of his poem.
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 different key features also plays an important role for example the tone that is being formed by the lyrical voice that can be seen as a nephew or niece. This specific poem is also seen as an exposition of what Judith Butler will call a ‘gender trouble’ and it consist of an ABBA rhyming pattern that makes the reading of the poem better to understand. The poem emphasizes feminist, gender and queer theories that explains the life of the past and modern women and how they are made to see the world they are supposed to live in. The main theories that will be discussed in this poem will be described while analyzing the poem and this will make the poem and the theories clear to the reader. Different principals of the Feminist Theory.
In Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, the speaker seems to be an adult reminiscing his childhood through a metaphor of a dance. The poem suggests that the boy was abused and the mother stood by without doing much about it. Three topics that
Roethke’s My Papas Waltz Many literary scholars, researchers and readers in general, driven by intrigue, have tried to dissect, analyze, and interpret the ambiguous meaning of Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Their explications however, result in ambivalent, and sometimes controversial views. Some critics argue that “My Papas Waltz,” portrays the physical violence inflicted by a father to his child.
Theodore Roethke’s, “My Papa’s Waltz,” uses a great deal of imagery by using the metaphor of the word “Waltz.” A Waltz is a dance that has a step to every beat of the music, while in close proximities to the other dancer, there is not much change and it is in fact quite repetitive. Already we begin to form an image Roethke is trying to provide us by saying “My Papa’s Waltz.” His usage of the word “Papa” is quite informal compared to the word, “father.” It is only upon reading and analyzing the rest of the poem that we realize the struggle tied to the word.