Sometimes fathers are not always Daddies; “My Papa’s Waltz”, written by Theodore Roethke, and “Those Winter Sundays” , written by Robert Hayden, are both prime examples of how the ideal father son relationship is not a reality for everyone. While both poems are about difficult relationships between the sons and their fathers both children have different types of relationships with their fathers. Based on the point of view, household descriptions, and how the speakers talk about their fathers it can be incurred that “My Papa’s Waltz” is a more physical relationship than “Those Winter Sundays”.
Both poems are told from the sons’ point of views. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the boy talks about how he is waltzing around the room with his father; possibly even being abused by him; “But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy.” (Roethke 3-4). By saying that he was holding on like “death” and that the “waltz” they were doing was “not easy” it shows that whether it is abusive or not the boy does have a physical relationship with his father. There are also other points throughout the poem that may indicate physical abuse; “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle. // You beat time on my head” (Roethke 11-13). These may be other hints that he is physically beating the boy. …show more content…
Hayden perceives the boys relationship with his father as distant by writing the following: “When the rooms were warm, he’d call, / and slowly I would rise and dress, // Speaking indifferently to him,” (Hayden 7-8,10). This shows how the boy watches his father from a distance and does not really have an intimate relationship with
Both poems are told from the sons’ point of views. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the boy talks about how he is waltzing around the room with his father; possibly even being abused by him; “But I hung on like death: / Such waltzing was not easy.” (Roethke 3-4). By saying that he was holding on like “death” and that the “waltz” they were doing was “not easy” it shows that whether it is abusive or not the boy does have a physical relationship with his father. There are also other points throughout the poem that may indicate physical abuse; “At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle. // You beat time on my head” (Roethke 11-13). These may be other hints that he is physically beating the boy. …show more content…
Hayden perceives the boys relationship with his father as distant by writing the following: “When the rooms were warm, he’d call, / and slowly I would rise and dress, // Speaking indifferently to him,” (Hayden 7-8,10). This shows how the boy watches his father from a distance and does not really have an intimate relationship with