Essay Comparing My Papa's Waltz And Those Winter Sundays

Father and son relationships are important in families. A father is not only a hard worker and provider for his family, but also a man that spends time with and takes care of his children. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, and in Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” are two poems that tell a story of the relationship between father and son. In these two poems, the reader takes a look back at how their fathers had treated them. Both parents were not perfect, their children had love and respect for them, and in contrast the two fathers had different approaches when treating their sons. No parent is a perfect parent, and no household is a perfect household. Within these two poems the poets admitted they didn’t have perfect fathers,

In “My Papa’s Waltz”, the title shows a significance towards the story. Usually when a small boy calls his father Papa they have a close relationship. The son usually respects and admires his father. Also the word “Waltz” has great meaning. When reading this story, the reader finds a violent experience between father and son. The child is beaten by his father, but the author tells the reader through a way of a dance, the waltz, so the feeling the reader gets is that the narrator doesn’t look at the experience as bad. The father tends to overlook some of the things he does just to be able to continue the dance. Although the father’s “breath could make a small boy dizzy’(1-2); the child “hung on like death”(3) even though his ear was scraping his father’s belt buckle. In “Those Winter Sundays” we can conclude that the boy’s father was a hard worker just like the father in “My Papa’s Waltz”. The two poems both speak of the father’s hands. “then with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made”(3-4). This shows the love and respect they have for their children. Although these two poems have similarities, they also have