Evelina Corcos 711

Poetry 

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden & “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

A relationship between a child and their parent is extremely important and treasurable. However, some children don’t spend their youth maintaining the greatest bond with their parents. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden both share the speakers memories of their father.

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, is told from the point of view of an adult looking back on their childhood relationship with their father. “Sundays too my father got up early and put on his clothes in the blueblack cold, then with his cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.” The speaker seems to be talking about how when he was younger, nobody ever appreciated his father or noticed how hard he worked for his family. The way this poem is written, it is shown to the reader that the father cares very much about his family and tends to them whenever possible. “Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out in the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” This line implies that the father is lonely and upset because of the work he does for his family, but he does all of the work out of love, and not to be appreciated or thanked.

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that is also told from the point of view of an adult looking back on their childhood. But instead of looking back and regretting his actions for not acting grateful towards his father, he is looking back on his drunk father. He is speaking about how his father would “miss steps” and how his “mothers countenance could not unfrown itself.” The speaker isn’t positive whatsoever about his father, he is talking about how poorly his father treated him, and how he was abusive and often intoxicated. The first stanza of the poem introduces the reader to the drunken father, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death; such waltzing was not easy.” In translation, the speaker is saying how his fathers breath was very strong, it almost felt like it was causing him [as a small boy] to get dizzy. But the child stayed strong although it was never easy. “You beat me on my head, with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed, still clinging to your shirt.” The speaker is saying how his father was abusive towards him but the father didn’t realize how badly his actions affected his wife and child. His child (speaker) was clinging to his fathers shirt trying not to let him go because even though he didn’t treat him right, it was his father, and he wanted to maintain hope in him. 

The prospectives of the two speakers are very different. In “Those Winter Sundays” (as previously stated) the point of view of the speaker is regretful, and his attitude towards his father is [now] very loving. The speaker is looking back and comprehending how much his father did for his family and how great and loving his father actually was, wishing he treated his father with some more respect and showed him more thanks when he was younger. In “My Papa’s Waltz”  (also, as previously stated) the speaker is looking back on his childhood with his father and wishing it were different, that his father didn’t drink, that he didn’t have to put up with his fathers abusive behavior, and that him and his mother could of had a normal, healthy, and loving relationship with his/her father/husband.

In conclusion, both poems have to do with adults looking at their pasts and wishing they could have gone differently. They are both very much alike because they are both told from the same point of views (the child’s), and the tones of the both of them are very dark and sorrowful. I think the authors of these poems wrote them intending for people acknowledge how good they might have it and how everyone should love and respect their family and cherish their childhood while it's lasting because they might not realize how it may affect them as an adult.