"Those Winters Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz"

         “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa's Waltz”

          Fathers will care for their children even though they might not get any gratitude back from their kids. In the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, a speaker tries to explain their attitudes on how their dad treated them. In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker describes a Sunday morning and what his dad does for him so he is warm. While the speaker's father in “My Papa's Waltz” treats the speaker in a fun way to keep him interested and not bored. The speakers, in “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa Waltz's" relationship with their fathers are similar because they both care about the speaker but differ because the way they care make the speaker feel differently about their fathers.

          The speaker's father in "Those winter Sundays" works hard to care for the speaker but the speaker is oblivious to what his father does for him . The poem explains the fathers work saying, “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from the labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering breaking. When the room were warm, he'd call....” The speaker recognizes what his dad does while he is sleeping. His father wakes up everyday, including Sundays, in the blueblack cold which is early morning, before the sun rises. He goes out in the cold even though his hands hurt from the work he did in the weekdays. This tells us that he had a tough job and had to work hard. The speaker hears the cold splintering and breaking which indicates the father made the rooms warm and the cold is going away. But then, the poem expresses what the speaker does while the father works saying, “...and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing and chronic angers of that house, speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?” While his father woke up early to make the fire for the speaker, the speaker doesn't even acknowledge it but instead acts like he lives in luxury and wakes up slowly and gets dressed, probably for church because its Sunday according to the first stanza. The speaker then continues to say that he has a normal conversation with his dad, the person that warmed the rooms and cleaned his shoes. This seems like he is having some guilt and regretting for talking normally to him and not thanking him for what he had done for him as a child. The father wakes up early everyday and works hard for the speaker but the way he cares is too oblivious for the speaker at a young age to understand how important his father is.

          But in the other hand, the father in "My Papa's Waltz" shows his love for the speaker by having fun with him after a stressful day and the speaker understands that. The speaker in the poem describes what his father does saying, “The Whiskey on your breathe could make a small dizzy; but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy. We romped the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance could not unfrown itself....The hand that held my hands was battered on one knuckle.” The speaker explains that his fathers breathe smelled so bad with whiskey it can make him dizzy. This can mean that he has been drinking a lot and for a reason. The dad probably drinks alcohol because of the kind of work he does. When the speaker goes on to say in the third stanza that his knuckle was battered , we can conclude that he works with his hand and that it might be a hard, stressful job which makes him want to have a drink after. But even though he is stressed, the father plays with his son by messing the kitchen up because he wants to keep the speaker happy. The poem also explains that the mother is not happy with the playing but the father still plays so the speaker can have some fun. The poem then explains the speakers night saying, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed, still clinging on to your shirt.” The father seems to be dancing a waltz, a three step dance, with the son from stanza two to four in the poem. He beats time on the speaker head with dirty hands which means he count the beats to his dance by tapping his head with his hands. And again, we see he has dirty hands which gives us another hint he works rough with his hands. But after that the father dances the speaker off to bed but the speaker clings on to his father which means he doesn't want to go to bed. This means the speaker shows affection because he realizes that the father still played with him even under the stress he was in. The father cares for the speaker by having fun with him which is clear enough for the speaker to show some love back.

          In conclusion, the father in "Those Winter Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz" both show that they care about their child but just in different ways. The father in "Those Winter Sundays" showed it in a quiet way which made the speaker realize that good deeds done by his father at an older age. While The father in "My Papa's Waltz" shows he cares in a more active way with the speaker which makes the speaker understand his love and acknowledges his father at the moment rather at an older age.