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My Papa’s Walt’s compared & contrast to Those Winter Sundays

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My Papa’s Walt’s compared & contrast to Those Winter Sundays
My Papa’s Walt’s compared & contrast to Those Winter Sundays

My Papa 's Waltz, by Theodore Roethke, and Those Winter Sundays, by Robert Hayden, are similar comparing the fathers. In the poems the two fathers are caring and giving the children love and support, a father should always do for their children, by doing so, he gains their love and respect. In the two poems Roethke and Hayden take an admiring look back at the actions of their fathers, although; they both imply that their parents were not perfect.

In My Papa 's Waltz, Theodore Roethke describes an episode in his childhood. In this, what seems to be regular, occurrence his drunken father comes home for the night reeking of alcohol and begins dancing with him.
Roethke describes his father 's hands as being battered on one knuckle and extremely soiled. They "romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf"
(5-6). This made his mother so upset that she could do nothing but frown.
Finally, his father "waltzed" him on to bed.

In Those Winter Sundays '; by Robert Hayden, the poet also relinquishes on a regular occurrence in his childhood. On Sunday mornings, just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the cold darkness. He then goes out in the cold and splits fire wood with which he uses to start a fire in the house. After the entire house is warm he calls the rest of his family out of bed. In both poems the poets seem to look back on their childhoods with much love and respect for their fathers. In My Papa’s Waltz '; the title suggests a sense of love and honor. Usually when a child calls his father
Papa they have a very close relationship in which the child respects and admires his father. Also, the use of the word Waltz suggests a happy dance of high class people. This is ironic because Roethke’s father is drunken and dirty when this dance takes place, but when one thinks of the waltz



Cited: Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa 's Waltz." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 7th ed. Ed. Leah Jewell. Upper Saddle Ridge: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. Roethke, Theodore.” My Papa’s Waltz.” Poem Line 9-12, the hand that held my wrist, was battered on one knuckle at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle. Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2010. 523-4. Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays.” Poemhunter.com. Poem Hunter, Web. 26 Sep 2014. Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa’s Waltz.” Web. 26 Sep 2014. Robe Robert, Hayden. “Those Winter Sundays” Poem Line 6-8 Robert, Hayden. “Those Winter Sundays” Poem Line 8-9

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