poetry essay

poetry essay for "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays"

There are good ways and bad ways for a father to express love for his son. In "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden the father expresses love for his son by getting up early every day and working hard to make his son comfortable. In "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethkethe the father expresses his love by fooling around, drinking, and making a mess. The father in "Those Winter Sundays" has a better way of showing the love he has for his son.

Both fathers in the poems work hard doing some form of labor, but the father in "Those Winter Sundays" works harder and does more work for his son than the one in "My Papa's Waltz. The father in "Those Winter Sundays" doesn't fool around making more work for his family by making a mess, he wakes up early every morning and builds a fire. In "Those Winter Sundays" it says "I'd wake and hear the cold splintering breaking/ when the rooms were warm, he'd call/ and slowly I would rise and dress,.' His father woke up early and made a fire so his family could get dressed in the warm. This is a sacrifice the speaker's dad made for him to express his love. He spent his time making sure his son was comfortable. The father in 'My Pap's Walt" spent the free time he had drinking and fooling around with his son. The poem says "The whiskey on your breath/ could make a small boy dizzy/ but I hung on like death/ such waltzing was not easy." The speaker's father obviously had a lot to drink if it could "make a small boy dizzy" and after drinking he waltzed around the house with his son in not the most pleasant way. Both fathers love their sons but the father in "Those Winter Sundays" expresses it in a more positive and thoughtful way.

Both these fathers are hardworking. In "Those Winter Sundays" The father wakes up early in the cold for his family. Th poem says "Sundays too my father got up early/ and put on his clothes in the blue black cold,/ then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze." Even on Sundays which is a day of rest the father gets up early instead of sleeping like the rest of his family. He has has hands that are cracked and aching so he works hard with his hands in a field of work that is very difficult. In "My Papa's Waltz it says "You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt." The dad works hard at work doing some form of labor which is why his palm is caked with dirt, but doesn't seem to do work for his son like the father in "Those Winter Sundays" who woke up early every day even Sunday morning to build a fire so his son could get dressed in the warm and he also polished his good shoes. 

Both poems are about children remembering their fathers. In "Those Winter Sundays" the son is remembering how much work his dad did for him and how he didn't thank him. In "My Papa's Waltz" the son is remembering a fun moment with his father, even though his father expressed his love in a weird way.