Essay On Those Winter Sundays

Lasting Legacies

Since the beginning of time, fathers have been one of the key figures in a boy 's life. In the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” by Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Robert Hayden, and "Digging" by Seamus Heaney, the love between a father and his son are shown in a variety of ways. These three wonderful poems inspire people, especially fathers and sons, to have deep relationships with one another. The words written by Roethke, Hayden, and Heaney show that it is difficult to keep a relationship strong between a father and his son, because even the smallest mistake can destroy it. Each of these poems demonstrate, in their own way, the complicated and strong love between a father and his son. Roethke 's poem, "My Papa 's Waltz," paints a picture of the speaker 's father in the

In Hayden 's poem, "Those Winter Sundays," the speaker is haunted by guilt for all the years he never thanked his father. The picture of the speaker 's father up every morning in the "blueblack cold" (869) on his only day off sends a powerful message. Everything the father did was done to make his son 's life a little bit easier. It is sad that "no one ever thanked him" and his son "spoke indifferently to him" (870), and even with the fathers best efforts, his home was still consumed with "chronic angers" (870). No matter how much the father did, the son never noticed his efforts. Now the son 's neglectful attitude towards his father has returned to haunt him. The son finally sees the amount of work it takes to raise a family. He learns how hard life really is, and he understands why he should have respected and admired his father long ago. His father went about his everyday duties quietly, never asking for anything in return. The great sacrifices that the father made for his son proves how much he loved him. The speaker lastly admits that he did not "know of love 's lonely and austere offices" (870). Unfortunately, he realized this a little too late like many