Those Winter Sundays Comparison

Poems have a unique way of showing a theme or a feeling to the reader depending on the author’s style. When we compare the authors, Theodore Roethk and Robert Hayden we see how they show the themes in their poems. Theodore Roethke was an American poet who had a very tough childhood. At the age of 14, his father passed away, aside from that Roethke suffered from BP(bipolar disorder). Roethke went to the University of Michigan. At one point Roethke was considered the most influential and accomplished poet of his generation. Roethke is most known for his poem “The Waking”. Robert Hayden, much like Roethke, had a very tough childhood. Hayden was mostly raised by foster parents growing up. Hayden went to Detroit City College, today known as Wayne

In the article by LitCharts, they state that the poem is, “...a subtle gesture towards the sonnet to highlight how the speaker can't go back and show his father the appreciation…” The article explains how sonnets are usually used for love poems, but in reality, this poem is a love poem. The love is towards his father, he talks about all the sacrifices that he now as an adult realizes his father did for him and shows his love for his father now that he can truly appreciate all his father has done for him. The form of the poem “Papa’s Waltz” is in a four-stanza form, that is in quatrains. According to the article by Poem Analysis, “The quatrains follow the rhyme scheme of ABAB…The metrical pattern is not consistent throughout but mostly the lines are made up of three sets of two beats,” The article talks about the inconsistency of the poem’s rhyme scheme which is purposefully done by the author. By having inconsistency in the rhyme scheme, the author contributes to the “off-balance” dance that he describes his father

Hayden, now an adult realizes how much his father actually sacrificed for him and expected nothing in return, representing the theme of growing up and memory. In the poem “Papa’s Waltz”, Roethke tells us the story of his and his father’s relationship as a child, representing the theme of father/son relationships. In the poem Roethke explains this “waltz” that his father did, in reality, it is a tantrum, in a way, that his father did every time he drank, this represents the theme of violence in the poem. Throughout the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, the author talks about what it was like on those Sundays. He talks about his father’s routine of waking up early in the morning to make sure his house was warm for his family regardless of the fact that the father had to wake up early every weekday in order to go to work and provide for his family. In the last stanza, Hayden questions, “...what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” By saying this, Hayden realizes all of the efforts that his father did for him and realizes that he didn’t acknowledge any of this as a kid so how did he know what it takes to show love to your family at such a young age? Hayden describes his father’s routine every Sunday morning as a child and by the end of the poem, as an adult, he