poems essay

Zainah Gadoui 711        Essay

         Have you ever thought someone in your family doesn’t do much for you? Ever thought that they don’t love you like you love them? Turns out, they probably do, but have a different way of showing it. Or maybe you’re not looking close enough.  “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke convey different attitudes from the speakers to their fathers.

         “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa’s Waltz” both show the attitude of love towards theirs fathers at the end of the poem. This is shown in “Those Winter Sundays” with the quote, “What did I know, what did I know/ of love’s austere and lonely offices?” This shows that not everyone can see love even though (in these cases) its there. The speaker feels regretful that they didn’t appreciate their father’s love when it was there. The second poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, shows love with the lines “Then waltzed me off to bed/ still clinging to your shirt.” I think that “My Papa’s Waltz” was about child abuse. This shows that the speaker still loves their father even though he was hurting them.

         In “Those Winter Sundays”, the speaker was indifferent to their father up until the ending. This demonstrates that idea “Speaking indifferently to him/ who had driven out the cold/ and polished my good shoes as well.” This shows that the speaker didn’t realize how much their father did for them. He woke up early, warmed up the house, and polished their good shoes, and the speaker didn’t even realize. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker expressed love to their father the entire time. This shows that idea “Could make a small boy dizzy/ But I hung on like death/ such waltzing was not easy.” This reveals that the speaker loved his father the entire time, even though it wasn’t easy to love him after what he did.

         Both poems express different things about the speakers’ fathers. One was indifferent to their father until the end, when they realized how much love he expressed. The other poem showed that the speaker loved their father even though it wasn’t easy because he was beating them. Overall, love is important, as is appreciation for what others do for you.