A Father’s Love The poems “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke contain a multitude of different symbols, diction, and figurative language that contribute to the themes of the poems. Although the themes are not identical in the two poems, they contain a basic gist that unites the theme of love and admiration between child and father. The fathers in both poems are extremely similar, described with blue collar, industrial characteristics and a unique way of displaying affection. The theme of love in Hayden’s, “Those Winter Sundays” is similar to the theme of admiration in Roethke’s, “My Papa’s Waltz” in the sense of how a father and child relationship connects through love.
In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the
…show more content…
Some of the diction used in the text includes the description of the father’s hands. On line 10, the child refers to the knuckle on one of the father’s hands as “battered.” Two lines later, the child references the father’s hand as “a palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke 791). These references to the father’s hands give the tone of wear and tear or even abuse. A constant hint of violence is mentioned throughout the poem like in the first two lines where the father is presented and immediately drunk which can also be seen as leading to violence. In line 3, a metaphor of death is presented by how the child hung on to the father “like death” which does not give a positive connotation to the way that the father and child’s relationship translates to the reader (Roethke 791). Death is unable to be avoided and therefore inevitable like the manner in which the child clings to the father so that he cannot escape. The roughness and battered nature of the father’s hands also give a violent connotation as well as when the father’s buckle scrapes his child as they dance. The buckle refers to a belt which often times throughout history is shown to be a statement of authority and be used to discipline children especially. The buckle scraping the child could be an analogy to how the father does not try to intentionally hurt his child by harmlessly dancing but in a bigger picture that …show more content…
Along with “My Papa’s Waltz,” the poem uses the hands of the father figure to communicate more. In this poem, the father’s hands are described as “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday.” The father’s hands reflect a certain level of pain or blue collared spirit which he works through the week and uses his day off on Sundays for the betterment of the family. The “blueblack” cold that is described conveys a scene of darkness, frostbite, or bruises and pain (Hayden 783). The bleakness of the weather translates into something not at rest or not at peace like the bleak and dead December in the “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. The splintering, breaking of the cold reinforces the description of coldness felt within the house before the father warms it with the fire. Hayden also references the indifferent manner in which the speaker talks to the father and how the father seems to go unappreciated because “no one ever thanked him” for getting up early to warm the house (Hayden 783). The chronic angers associated with the house make the reoccurring disease and pain of the feeling of the house significant to the way the child feels when time is spent with the father in the house.
In the conclusion of “Those Winter Sundays,” the now-older child states how he or she never accounted for the responsibilities that comes with a parent loving a child. Love is more of a duty and
just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the
The most notable qualities of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are the tone and language of the poem which convey the nostalgia adult author feels thinking about the time spent with his father. In the title narrator’s father is affectionately referred to as “Papa” making the impression that the main character and his father are close. The use of possessive pronoun “my” contributes to the overall impression that the father holds special place in the narrator’s heart. As word “waltz” in the title implies the poem gives account of the festive occasion in which the narrator’s father takes part.
“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.
My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to prove these two boys in fact love their abusive father. In both of these poems there is a movement from a cold and serious tone to a warm and happy one. The use of imagery successfully accentuates the good things the father does while marginalizing the bad. And the sounds and rhythms also add to the theme of love by manipulating how the poem is read. Roethke and Hayden are two skilled poets that have much control over the techniques they use. It is interesting that these poems are so alike and perhaps it is due to the time at which they were written. In any case, these two poets made a lasting impression on American poetry and will continue to appear in poetry anthologies for years to come.
The first line in the poem introduces the fact that the father has been drinking whiskey. Now, most of us know that people have different reactions to alcohol. Some people are funny and like to have a good time, others become pretty mean. Which category the father falls in is hotly debated, however, most agree that the father’s drinking is the catalyst for the events in the rest of the poem be it waltzing or beating. Then comes the line, “But I hung on like death.” This is an incredibly powerful simile. Death has a negative connotation and adds a darkness to the piece as well as creating some very strong and powerful imagery. Also in the vein of imagery, the description of the father’s hands as “battered on one knuckle,” and “palm caked hard by dirt,” are very descriptive. His hands’ knuckles could be battered (which is an intense word that usually indicates some type of violence) from hitting and abusing the boy, or, in tandem with his hands being caked with dirt, just shows that his father is a hard
When one becomes a father, he undertakes many responsibilities: setting a positive example, enforcing discipline for misbehavior, overviewing the safety of his children, providing a loving atmosphere, and numerous other tasks. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” the narrator reminisces on the memories of his “papa” through the metaphor of an aggressive “waltz.” Using descriptions of the father’s actions and the reactions of the mother, Roethke illustrates the situation with carefully selected vocabulary. These actions of the narrator’s “papa” can be interpreted as either positive and loving or as inappropriate and unnecessary. After a brief analysis of the poem, readers might assume that the narrator’s memories of his father reflect
Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz (1948), presents both a warming memory of a boy and his father as well as a dark story of an abusive childhood. Combining a story of both joy and horror sends an important message of abuse and the fear it instills in the victims. Through Roethke’s structure and word choice in My Papa’s Waltz presents two stories which simultaneously depict the fear and Stockholm Syndrome type love often found in abusive relationships.
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”, a grown person, most likely a man, recounts the winter Sundays of his childhood and the sadness of lost opportunities to develop bonding ties between father and child. The man realizes that as a child he failed to appreciate the hard work his father did in order to provide the basic necessities. The word choice that Robert Hayden uses is not complex, which requires little effort to read and is easily understandable. However, if one were to explicate this poem, it proves to be a complex piece with a well-defined sentiment of the conflict between unrecognized love and regret. Hayden’s diction helps communicate the underlying tone of the story. Imagery plays a major role in this poem. The speaker, who
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
Imagery is more complex than just a picture. For this particular poem, the imagery can be described in different points of views from other readers than my own. “With a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt” (Lines 14-16) is an example that makes me understand a type of imagery that Roethke may be trying to get across. Because the father’s hands are hard by dirt, he more than likely works outside as a hard working construction worker, gardener, farmer, etc. If these so happened to be his occupation, it would help explain his reason for his alcohol abuse from coming home exhausted from the heat and body aching and craving the whiskey he has been dreaming of drinking all day. The father then dances with his son up to his bed and his son does not want to let go of his shirt. By him still grabbing onto his shirt while he is trying to lay him down in bed, could be interpreted as the son wanting some kind of affection from his father who pays more attention towards his love of alcohol rather than his love towards his family. Even though the father could possibly be drunk, the waltz between the son and father could be the happiest moment in the young boy’s life because his father is actually holding onto him showing love and happiness that he has been missing. These actions helped me imagine in my head what
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.
Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is about a relationship between a father and his son. Beginning with the title, the author's meticulous choice of voca...
A relationship is important to a father and son. The importance is acknowledging one another. Father and son relationships are important in the poems, “My Papa’s Waltz,” “Those Winter Sundays,” and “My Father’s Hat.” Theodore Roethke acknowledges his father’s love and attention in his poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Robert Hayden acknowledges his father in his poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by recognizing his father’s hard work and sacrifice. Mark Irwin acknowledges his father in his poem, “My Father’s Hat.”
Many writers use powerful words to portray powerful messages. Whether a writer’s choice of diction is cheerful, bitter, or in Robert Hayden’s case in his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” dismal and painful, it is the diction that formulates the tone of the piece. It is the diction which Hayden so properly places that allows us to read the poem and picture the cold tension of his foster home, and envision the barren home where his poem’s inspiration comes from. Hayden’s tumultuous childhood, along with the unorthodox relationships with his biological parents and foster parents help him to create the strong diction that permeates the dismal tone of “Those Winter Sundays.” Hayden’s ability to both overcome his tribulations and generate enough courage