Poetry Comparison Essay

Mohammed Islam 711 Poetry Essay

When it comes down to parent-child relationships, love can be shown in multiple ways. In the two poems, “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker’s of the poems talk about their relationship with their fathers. In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker talks about how his father does so much for him, but the speaker doesn't realize what his father does for him. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker talks about how his father tries to show love to him by being playful, but ends up hurting the speaker instead. Both poems talk about how the fathers treat them, but the father’s show love to their children in different ways.

In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker talks about how his father does so much for him,even making sacrifices. In the poem it states, “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on the blue-black cold , then with his cracked hands that ached from labor in weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.” First of all, the dad got early before the sun got up, where no one in the family was awake, and made a fire for the family even though he was worn out from the work he does during the weekdays. This shows us that the father cared so much about the family, that instead of waking up on the same time like everyone else, he would wake up early. Also, even though he was worn out from the work he does on the week, he still works so the family will be satisfied. We can see that the speaker didn't see these sacrifices his father makes for him when he says that no one ever thanked him. Also in the poem it states that, “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices.” From that line we can see that the speaker didn't understand what his father did for him. He didn't understand the way his father expressed love for him.Therefore we can see that the speaker’s relationship with the father is uncertain because he can’t really see the love the father is giving him.

However in “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker’s father shows love to his kid in a less oblivious way, but in the process, he hurts his kid instead. In the poem it states, “The hand that holds my wrist, was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed, my right ear would scrape a buckle.” We can see some similarities here with “Those Winter Sundays.” where both the fathers would do things for their families even though they are worn out from work. But in this poem the image the poem creates for us is the father and son dancing, and whenever the son  messed up he would “accidentally” get hurt. Another statement in the poem that shows the father and son relationship is when it says, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.” From here we can see another way how the father is being too physical when showing love to his kid. He would use his head as a drum, and would waltz his son to bed, which means that he would dance his son to bed.This also can make the reader feel some sympathy for the speaker because even though the author is being loved, he is getting hurt at the same time. From this relationship we can see that the dad tries so how his love to his son, but ends up being too physical.

In conclusion , the difference between the relationship between the father and son in  the poems is that the father and son in, “Those Winter Sundays” is that the father shows his love in an unobvious way, while in “My Papa’s Waltz” the father does show his love in a obvious way, but accidentally hurts his son in the same time. We can also see that the fathers would make sacrifices for the sons. They both would do things for the kids, even though they were tired from the work they have already done. We can see that dads are both hard workers and care a lot about their kids. Even though some people may mistake the fathers in the poems, like in "Those Winter Sundays," many people see the father not caring the kid, just doing things for himself or in "My Papa's Waltz" people may think the dad is drunk and being abusive, but really, the dads are both just trying to satisfy their kids, but are doing it in different ways.