For my poetry paper I chose to examine poetry from the family album. The family album stood out to me significantly because I thoroughly enjoyed all of the poems because I had a personal connection with it. Family has always been an important part of my life and I think this particular album speaks volume. This album has many levels to it, some deeper than others. I feel that from reading poetry, it expands our ability to think and form ideas that we would have not thought about before. Poetry gives readers the ability to make connections on a deeper level and see things from a different perspective. The two poems that spoke to me in this album specifically were “Those Winter Sundays” By Robert Hayden and “Begotten” by Andrew Hudgins. These two poems are both similar because they are from a son’s point of view, talking about their parent(s). “Those Winter Sundays” was one of my all-time favorite poems from this album because it shows a hard working father who is dedicated to his family, but does not get any recognition for his hard work. …show more content…
“Those Winter Sundays” had a sad and sorrowful tone to it as compared with “Begotten” which has a more pleasant and upbeat tone. One of the reasons why I chose to look at poems in the family album was because of how diverse every poem was going to be. Just like in real life, everyone has a different life story due to their families. Family life is an important part of life and I liked how the speaker of the poem was able to reflect back on his childhood after had grown up. Both of these poems were about child-father relationship, but family all together. It is easy to take your parents for granite, but when you grow up you start to realize how grateful you are for all they have done for you. Just because these two poems had two different tones did not make one better than the other, they were both equally powerful in their
Presentation of Family Relationships in Carol Anne Duffy's Poem Before You Were Mine and in One Poem by Simon Armitage
“Abandoned Farmhouse” and “Ode to Family Photographs” both capture the theme, essence of family. However, one poem highlights turbulent times and the other emphasizes flaws that add to the memory of family in a positive way. The mood of “Abandoned Farmhouse” is dark and lonesome, whereas the mood of “Ode to Family Photographs” is fatuous and nostalgic. Each poem shows evidence of a mood which contributes to the overall meaning of the poem.
If I were asked who the most precious people in my life are, I would undoubtedly answer: my family. They were the people whom I could lean on to matter what happens. Nonetheless, after overhearing my mother demanded a divorce, I could not love her as much as how I loved her once because she had crushed my belief on how perfect life was when I had a family. I felt as if she did not love me anymore. Poets like Philip Levine and Robert Hayden understand this feeling and depict it in their poems “What Work Is” and “Those Winter Sundays.” These poems convey how it feels like to not feel love from the family that should have loved us more than anything in the world. Yet, they also convey the reconciliation that these family members finally reach because the speakers can eventually see love, the fundamental component of every family in the world, which is always presence, indeed. Just like I finally comprehended the reason behind my mother’s decision was to protect me from living in poverty after my father lost his job.
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden is a poem about a how the author is recalling how his father would wake up early on Sundays, a day which is usually a reserved as a day of rest by many, to fix a fire for his family. The mood of this poem is a bit sad. It portrays a father, who deeply cares for his family but doesn't seem to show it by emotions, words, or touching. It also describes a home that isn't very warm in feelings as well as the title" Those Winter Sundays" The author describes the father as being a hard worker, in the line "…with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday…", but still even on Sundays--the day of rest, the father works at home to make sure the house is warm for his family. The "blueblack cold described in the poem is now warmed by a father's love. This poem describes the author reminiscing what did not seem obvious at the time, the great love of his father, and the author's regretting to thank his father for all that he did.
The poem “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker is about a speaker and her grandmother. The girl is adjusting to college life, but she is having problems and cannot tell her grandmother; instead, she tells her, “School is fine”. She revels her inner thoughts in order for the reader to determine she is depressed and heart wrenched. It is hard for her to tell her religious grandmother about her friends writing about “sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha”. At the end Parker writes, “It’s funny how things blow loose like that.” This is a comparison to a college student and how they have to go away from their family and learn how to live on their own. Moreover, the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is about a father and a son relationship. His father wakes up every Sunday morning to light fireplaces to warm up their home and nobody thanks him for doing this. “Sundays” in the title evocate more feelings than the other days of the week do. Sundays may be pleasant family days at home or dull and depres...
The poem that gave me the greatest emotional reaction was “Dusting”. The poem is very touching to me. The poet described a girl in the poem who is writing her scribbling everywhere and her mother keeps erasing her scribblings. “Each morning I wrote my name/on the dusty cabinets, then crossed/the dining table in script…” (Alvarez, 2006, 1-3). This poem is showing how the girl is trapped in her mother’s shadow. She wants more in life and doesn’t want to be like her mother. The poet is showing that the girl wants to be better than her mom, “But I refused with every mark/to be like her, anonymous.” (Alvarez, 2006, 17-18). In some cultural you see this a lot; parents trying to guide their child down the same career path they are in. Most of the
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The lack of verbal communication between his father and himself can be seen in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." The overall impression of the poem is that love can be communicated in other ways than through words; it can be communicated through everyday, mundane actions. For example, in the poem, the father awakens on "Sundays too" to warm the house with a fire and polish his sons shoes. There is a sense of coldness in the beginning of the poem through the lines:
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
In Samuel Coleridge’s conversation poems “The Eolian Harp” and “Frost at Midnight,” he reveals and communicates his situation in terms of religious feelings, where both his poems can speak to the audience in a quiet and personal voice revealing truth in terms of everyday experiences. Both poems use certain devices such as internal conflict, external conflict, symbolism, structure, and the theme of the association between God and nature to communicate the situation of the poet in terms of religious feelings. Both poems emphasize the importance of the natural world by presenting imagery and descriptions of the natural setting, and stating that nature itself is very closely tied with God and religion. Although Samuel Coleridge uses different plots, devices, and methods in both “The Eolian Harp” and “Frost at Midnight,” he manages to represent his religious views, the importance of nature, and the spiritual, religious, and mystical themes in both poems.
In Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” show that children have a hard time understanding why a parent is distant the speaker says “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on/ in the blueblack cold,”(Line 1-2) the father even gets up very early on Sundays as in the “blueblack cold” the speaker seems to not understand why the father does this why does he get up so early day after day? He seems to ask himself. The speaker observes that “ …With cracked hands the ached from labor in the weekday weather/ banked fires blazed”(Line 3-5) the father works hard for his family his hands are cracked and sore and he still gets up earlier then the rest of his family and makes the fire blaze to warm the house for them.
...s the theme of family. For example, when you truly love someone in your family, you make sure that you show them you truly love them by not only giving them a hug but also telling them that you love them. I can relate to this situation because whenever I notice that my mom is feeling down, I make sure that I tell her that I love her and she is the best mom in the world. Another theme that is present in this poem that I can relate with my life is the theme of mortality. For example, the man is obsessed with not only how but also why Annabel died. I can relate to the man in this situation because after my mom’s dog passed away about nine or ten years ago I was wondering for the longest time why she had to pass away. She wasn’t always the nicest dog, but I still loved her anyways. This poem celebrates the child-like emotions with the ideals of the Romantic era.
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.
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.
“The Spring and the Fall” is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem is about two people, the poet and her significant other that she once had love for. The poem integrates the use of spring and fall to show how the poet stresses her relationship. Of course it starts off briefly by having a happy beginning of love, but the relationship soon took a shift for the worst, and there was foreshadow that there would be an unhappy ending. “I walked the road beside my dear. / The trees were black where the bark was wet” (2-3). After the seasons changed, the poet begins to explain why the relationship was dying, and all of the bad things she endured during the relationship. So, to what extend did the poet’s heart become broken, and did she ever