My Papas Waltz And Those Winter Sundays English Literature Essay

The poem My Papa’s Waltz, by Theodore Roethke in addition to Those Winter Sundays, by Robert Hayden, are fairly alike poems concerning the appreciated fathers. To the majority people a father is not just the man who fertilizes their mother’s egg, but a father that spends his time taking care of his children’s. Though doing this, the father gains his kids love and respect for him. Within these two poems by Roethke and Hayden receive a positive gaze back at the actions of their fathers; even though they both mean that their parents were not right all the times. In My Papa’s Waltz and Theodore Roethke explains an incident in their childhood. Seeing this as a regular occasion his drunken father arrives home for the nighttime stinking of alcohol and begins dancing with him. Roethke explains his father’s hand as being beat-up on one knuckle and very dirty. They romped until the pans slide from the kitchen shelf (line 5-6). This made his mother so disappointing that she could do nothing but look angrily. At last, his father walks him on to bed. Within Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, the poet as well renounce on a regular occasion in his childhood. 0On Sunday mornings, as just any other morning, his father waits up in the early hours and puts on his clothing in the freezing night. The father then goes out in to the cold and starts cut some fire wood by which he utilize to start a fire in the house. After the whole house is warming the father call the entire family out of bed. The father does not obtain any thanks for doing this, but that does not appear to be an issue. Within the two poems the writers seem to gaze back on their childhoods by means of a great deal of love and respect for their fathers. In My Papa s Waltz the heading suggests a common sense of love and honor. Frequently when a kid names his father Papa they contain an extremely close up relationship in which the kid respect and admire his father. As well the use of the expression Waltz suggests happy dance of high category people. This is sarcastic because Roethke’s father is drunken and filthy once this dance takes place, but as one think of the waltz they believe of a dance connecting two high-classed people in an excessive ballroom. An additional example of the kids love and respect for his father is show in the belongings he ignore just to be able to hold out the dance.

Although the smell of whiskey in his father’s breath can make a little boy dizzy (line 1-2) the kid hang on like death (line 3). The narrator as well ignore the pain of his ear scraping against a belt buckle at every missed step of his drunken father just to continue his waltz . Roethke also indirectly implies his respect for his father by stating that his hand is caked hard with dirt (14). This is representative of his father having had a hard day at work. Robert Hayden uses a different approach to imply his love and respect for his father. He uses an example of a regular occasion that he did not pay much attention to when he was a child but now that he is an adult he looks back on it with the utmost respect. Just as any other day his father gets up bright and early on Sunday mornings. He puts his clothes at the middle of the freezing night then goes outside to split firewood. Although he does not pay this much attention in his childhood, Hayden really respects it as an adult. His father’s actions are a result of his simple love for his children. Although his approach is different, Hayden uses one of the same references to his father as Roethke: his hand. Hayden refers to the condition of his father s hands with this statement: With cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather (3-4). This suggests that his father is a very hard worker. Although both poems represent the poet s love and respect for their fathers, there is one implement in each poem that suggests the fathers and family life was not perfect. The imperfection of the father in My Papa s Waltz is clearly stated. He has a drinking problem. In relation to this the mother s continuous frowning, the pans falling from the shelf may not have been the complete cause. She could have been frowning because she is tired of her husband coming home drunk every night. This may be a chronic problem in their relationship. In Those Winter Sundays there is no clean-cut imperfection but one is implied when the speaker refereed to the chronic angers of that house (9). These angers are not specifically drawn out but they could be of many things like the absence of a mother or the abusiveness of the father, but whatever it may be, there is some imperfection. In My Papa s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are two poems that express the poets love and respect for their parents. This love and respect may not have been as big of an issue to them when they were children but now they understand why their fathers did the things they did and will use those experiences to help them in their adult life.