A recurring theme in poetry is father-son relationships; however there are three well written poems that really stand out. The first is a poem written by Robert Hayden called “My Papa’s Waltz”. The second poem was written by Theodore Roethke named “Those Winter Sundays”. Finally the last poem is “Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt”. There are many differences between the father and son in each poem, some easier to catch than others. The first poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Robert Hayden, has a very happy tone the first reading. However upon a second reading a sense of harshness and sorrow seem to some into play. In the first reading the thought “wow this is really cute he is dancing with his son, maybe he's a little tipsy and is having fun with his kid …show more content…
This poem is a sort of switch from “My Papa's Waltz”, it is about a boy and his son and how much the father does for his son with no appreciation. the first sign that the father does many things for his son is in the first part of the first stanza “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold”, the word “too” in there means to say that he does this every other day of the week as well. Another quote that shows this father's dedication and love for his son is the second part of the first stanza “then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather make fires blaze”. the father works hard during the week day to make money for his family and by the weekend he hasn't let up in trying to please them, he light a fire in the morning to make sure they wake up warm, he sacrifices his own comfort for theirs. the last quote is sad on how much his family doesn't appreciate him, “No one ever thanked him”. how could one be so blind to see this love that he is pouring from his soul through his actions, it is
Next, we must summarize “Forgiving my Father” by Lucille Clifton, to discover the similarities between it and “My Papa’s Waltz”. In the poem we discover that the narrator's parents died and that she was haunted by several heated arguments between her parents over their finances. We get the sense that the daughter seems to be on her mother’s side as she used words like “old liar” and “old dead man” to describe her father. The daughter felt angry and hostile towards her father because she was put in the middle of a difficult marital relationship and felt responsible for their money problems.
Papa’s Waltz is a poem that has a consistent falling rhyme and rising rhyme in the first and third quatrains. The waltzing in the poem signifies an extended metaphor for the father-son
Time drastically shifts the way one views the world and those he encounters. "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke, and "Those Winter Sundays," by Robert Hayden, are poems which reminisce of the past and contrast how they felt about a specific childhood experience, and how that view has changed with time. Additionally, the painting "Father and Son Dancing," by Brian kershisnik, elegantly portrays an adult's perspective on an experience he had with his father. These wor after a long day of work in the familiy greenhouse: "The hand that held my writst/ Was battered on one knuckle," and "You beat time on my head/ With a palm cakedhard by dirt.
Henry Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” created a new national hero. Written in a time of tension and conflict, Longfellow didn’t prioritize the accuracy of historical details over the need to create a new national hero, to yet again spark the patriotism once shown by the man he wrote about. Longfellow wrote this piece in order to allow the country to feel the pride and patriotism that had been the foundation of nation since the previous century. While Longfellow accomplished explaining the core of what happened, he failed to mention the other riders who also rode that night, and Revere’s capture, where he was soon released in Lexington with no horse. Longfellow used imagery to create the image of a patriot, and the spirit of that patriot that saved the night.
In the poem, the father is normally busy doing labor even on Sundays, which is normally a day of rest and sleeping in later. In Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz he believes it is great to take time
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.
Roethkeś major works include ¨Journey Into The Interior,¨ ¨Child On Top Of A Greenhouse,¨ and ¨In A Dark Time.¨ Also among his more popular poems is ¨My Papa’s Waltz,¨ one of Roethke’s most renowned works, which uses a childlike perspective to tell a of a time when his tipsy father waltzed with him around the kitchen. While the poem is frequently interpreted as a secret story of abuse, Roethke’s tone and use of imagery throughout ¨My Papa’s Waltz¨ suggests a loving relationship between father and son, which was profoundly impacted by the death of his father due to cancer in 1923, years before the poem was written. Roethke begins the first stanza with a description of his father by speaking about the smell of whiskey on his breath.
The lines that supported my reasons was “The hand that held my wrist” and “Was battered on one knuckle.” In line 15 when the speaker exclaimed: “Then waltzed me off to bed” makes readers think the father could have beats his son and send him to bed. In my point a view I think that the father and son danced for a long time until they was tired and and couldn’t dance anymore. The father then sends his son to his bedroom. The last line of the fourth stanza is so interesting.
Parents-Child's Poetry (Those Winter Sundays) In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden uses many metaphorical ideas to distinguish their bonds between the father and son. The father, working hard everyday to provide support for his son, gain nothing, but pure sadism from working. In the cold Sunday morning, the father gets up to go to work and makes the fireplace for his son, which makes him feel very distressed.
In the two poems, “Jim” and “Father William”, family are used to an extent in these passages. Parents and their children can be very different from one another, but also show the attention and affection indicated in a family. One way in which the story, “Jim”, showed differences in ages is showing compassion for his mother by tending to her as she was sick and aiding her even if it meant missing his favorite game, baseball. In “Father William”, his son had felt unsure about the safety of the man. As for being older, his hair was white, he had grown most uncommonly fat, his son wanted him nothing to do with the insane stunts he had been doing since his youth.
Robert Hayden uses tone shift in “Those Winter Sundays” to showcase the complexity of parenting styles and how easy miscommunication can be caused between parent and child. This is done through the speaker's perspective of childhood and how his father influenced his experience in his youth. By shifting from a regretful to an enlightening yet reminiscent tone, we see how our speaker misunderstood his father’s expression of love and why it was misinterpreted. Towards the beginning of the poem, a regretful tone is shown from the speaker who feels guilty for the way he treated his father in his childhood.
“My Father’s Song” describes the close, tender relationship between a father and his son, while “Those Winter Sundays” depicts a more distant, strained relationship between the father and his family. Ortiz’s lively descriptions of pleasant memories, illustrate how the father’s interactions with his son reveal his love and strengthen their relationship. A darker, emotionless tone fills Hayden’s poem as he emphasizes a father’s austere, yet sacrificial love toward his family. These poems both set different examples of how some families choose live out the bond between one
The speaker now sees that the anger and stress in the house was because of poverty and striving to meet needs. Reiterating the importance of the father, the speaker writes: “Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (1-2). Empathy is embraced by enlightening the reader with imagery. The father getting up early on the only day he can rest. Even in the cold and in pain he was putting his family before himself.
Nevertheless, the last two lines of the poem are the most blatant indicators of the speaker’s regret. Everything else in the poem has only been hinting at the speaker’s realization of his childish ignorance, but he explicitly states that he didn’t understand the more understated ways of expressing love in the last two lines. Repetition serves as a powerful tool for amplifying the pain and regret felt by the speaker, as he openly criticizes his past self for thinking he had his father figured out without searching deeper. The son knows he can’t go back in time and teach himself the “austere,” or harsh, and “lonely offices,” meaning roles, of love. A parent’s love is mostly subtle, and his lack of understanding that as a child is something he can never take back.
“Those Winter Sundays,” is a poem, published in 1966, the author is Robert Hayden. The poem, in fifteen lines, recounts the memory of a person childhood. The speaker remembers the early morning events that took place and how much those events portrayed his father’s love for him. The man realizes that as a child, he failed to appreciate the hard work his father did in order to provide him with the necessities, like a roof over his head, warm place for him to sleep, and some small additional benefits too at times. The theme of the poem is sad, and lonely.