Poem Essay

Ava Mascuch     711

Poem Essay                                                                             03/11/15

Everyone has a different way of showing their love for someone. “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz”  by Theodore Roethke are both poems about father/son relationships and how they show their love for one another. In “Those Winter Sundays”  the father shows his love by putting his son before himself. The son doesn’t fully understand that the father is doing these things out of love. Their relationship isn’t all good.  In “My Papa’s Waltz” the father shows his love by playing with his son and the son appreciates it. They have a good relationship.

In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”  the father shows his love for his son by doing things for him, but he son doesn’t always appreciate the things his father does for him. He does not realize these things are an act of love. Their relationship is not great. An example of this is, “Sundays too my father got up early/ and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold...no one ever thanked him.” This shows that even on Sundays, a day generally set aside for rest, the father got up and did things for his son but the son never appreciated the things he did for him. This doesn’t show a good relationship because the speaker should understand his father is doing these things out of love. None of the things the son is taking for granted would happen without the father. Another example is, “Speaking indifferently to him, / who had driven out the cold.” This states that even after the father makes the room warm for his child he still doesn’t treat the father with respect and thank him. This also doesn’t show a good understanding between father and son.

In “My Papa’s Waltz” the father shows his love for his child by playing with him. The father and son have a good relationship. An example of this is, “We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf.” This shows that the father would rough house with his son to show his love. This shows his love because he’s is spending time with his son. They have a good relationship because the son knew his father loved him because the father played with him. Another example is, “You beat time on my head/ with a palm caked hard with dirt/ then waltzed me off to bed/ still clinging to your shirt.” This also states the father and son had a good relationship because even after a hard day at work the father would still play with his son and put him to bed, before caring about his own needs.

In each poem the father shows his love and how much he cares for his child but in different ways. It also shows the father and son relationship and if it was a positive or negative.  We should always try to thank our parents or family for doing things for us and not take these things for granted so we can show our appreciation for them.