Both Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke depicts how fathers in both poems love their child, but shows in different ways. “Those Winter Sundays” in line 1 Hayden states “Sundays too my father got up early,” and in line 5 “banked fires blaze.” These lines show how the father in “Those Winter Sundays” always got up early to set up a fire in the house in order warm up the house before the family got up. The father never cared for how early and how cold it was, he would always get up take care of the fire not for himself but for the family. This shows how the father is always there for the family but is not upfront with showing his love, he shows his love through doing what he thinks with help his family. In contrast, “My Papa’s Waltz” the father…
"Inside is where the son and father will always be holding hands"(Adam Johnson). All children one way or another have a special bond between them and their father. But, a father and son form an unbreakable bond. It's natural for a father to groom his son and teach him things he himself faced when he was once young. The poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke entails a memory of a small boy and father perceived to be having a good time and having a good time and dancing despite the father being drunk. “My Papa’s Waltz” is a positive childhood experience because the drunk father made time for his son, the father worked hard to provide for his family and the small boy loved his father unconditionally.…
In “My Papa’s Waltz’ by Theodore Roethke, the speaker’s tone towards his father is one that is loving and admiring. This is seen in the word choice of the speaker when interacting with his father.…
In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”, Theodore Roethke uses many connotations and detail that could be understood as positive or negative, but in my eyes, the word choice and intense details seem indicate a more sullen tone and a more abusive behavior towards the speaker. This poem is about a father and a son “waltzing” in their kitchen with their mother watching. Roethke does use a few words such as clinging and romped that could indicate a playful dance and a child clinging to their loving father not wanting to go to bed; however, there is more predominant language that shows an abusive father. The author first indicates that the whiskey on the father’s breath could make the son dizzy. This shows that the father has been drinking a large amount…
"My Papa's Waltz" is one of most popular contemporary poems written by Theodore Roethke. The poem was first published in 1942 by Heast Magazines, Inc. from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. It is a poem about a boy recalling a time with his father while they share a dance of waltz. This poem consists of four quatrains written in iambic trimeter with a simple rhyme scheme. It uses imagery, metaphors, and simile to invoke a strong impression. Each image captures an emotional richness all told from an innocent point of view of a child. At first glance, this poem has a tone of playfulness that captures the bond between father and son. Yet as one looks closely, the poem has a curious ambiguity that evokes multiple interpretations. The use of sardonic words to describe an affectionate moment is misleading and ultimately the readers are left to wonder whether the boy in the poem is suggesting some type of abuse or…
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” mentions three dark events from the Puritan’s history. Moreover, it could be said that the story was a result of Hawthorne’s feelings about his ancestors who were involved in the Salem witch trial as well as in other atrocities against Native Americans and Quacks. On the other hands, Flannery O’connor’s Catholic upbringing influenced almost all of her fictions. Her characters often face violent situations that force them into the moment of crisis that awaken their faiths. The two short stories “Young Good Man Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor both have characters that allow their faiths to be altered by evils. The Grandmother’s lies bout her trip to her family in “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” end up in a death of her family and herself, while the wrong paths taken by Goodman Brown lead him to the loss of his innocence. In short, both stories show how abandoning one Christian’s faith can allow evil to enter and conquer one’s live.…
Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” illustrates a nightly ritual between a working-class father and his young son. In the first stanza a young boy holds tightly to his father. The second stanza describes a playful roughhousing between father and son. The fourth stanza shows again the boy’s unwillingness to let go of his father. Roethke’s AB rhyming scheme and waltz-like meter set a light and joyful cadence. The music of the waltz comes through in the reading and with it a carefree and innocent tone for the telling of the short amount of time between a hard-working father arriving home and the time when his son must go to bed.…
1. Compare how the speaker in this poem feels about his father to the way Jerry feels about his father in “President Cleveland, Where Are You?” How are the fathers different? How are they similar? Use textual evidence to support your answer. Both Jerry and the speaker in this poem admire and respect their fathers a great deal. From Jerry’s descriptions of his father, the man seems more boisterous than the gentlemen described in “My Father Is a Simple Man.” Jerry’s father is known to sing songs and is described as always having a beer in his hand on Friday night. The father in “My Father Is a Simple Man” is more subdued. The speaker does not describe his father as particularly humorous or lively. Yet what he lacks in energy he seems to make up for with patience and dignity. Despite the obvious differences between them, both men have an impact on their children and both children ultimately wish to honor and respect their fathers.…
Structure can show a refinement in upbringing or possibly help define the tone. The past to present movements in Grape Sherbet show the flashbacks or memories. However the poem My Papas Waltz uses a defined structure without use of flashbacks. These similarities and differences add to the uniqueness of…
The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, is about the ongoing issue of a father physically abusing his young son. There are many specific details throughout the poem that support this idea. The father in this poem is a violent alcoholic. It is a common and ongoing problem in this particular household. Finally, I believe that both the mother and child disapprove of the father’s actions, but don’t dare to take action against him. This poem shows the reader what happens on a typical night at this particular household. Physical abuse from a father to his son is a normal occurrence in this household. “My Papa’s Waltz,” is a poem about violence.…
This poem at first reading creates an image of an abusive father who comes home and beats his son. But it is a complete opposite expression. The poem "My Papa's Waltz" is positively and related to the son's memories which are still fresh with all the details after he is grown. It is about the relationship between a father and son who spend his time at the end of the hard working day in an awkwardly manner.…
The theme of the poem is largely apparent in the abundant imagery used by Roethke. Not only does he use the sense of sight, but he also utilizes the sense of smell in the first two lines of the poem. The lines “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy” (1-2) emphasize the narrator’s strong memory of his father. He doesn’t just remember what his father looked like or other brief visual aspects, but he remembers his fathers relentless drinking and the effect it had on him. The reader also gains insight into what kind of father the narrator had and can infer that the poem isn’t about something as simple as a waltz. As the poem progresses the reader can see just how volatile the relationship, or “waltz”, between father and son was. The seemingly playful interaction hints at turning violent as the narrator describes that his father “At every step you [he] missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle” and he “beat time on my head” (11-13). These actions could be seen as innocent gestures, but they seem to suggest that an abusive relationship exists. Another image that gives the reader an idea of what the father and son relationship is like Despite these ambiguities, the reader attains a vivid image of what the scene looks like through the ample use of the senses and imagery and is able to infer what the relationship between…
The poem, "My Papa 's Waltz", written by Theodore Roethke, is written in such a way that creates many debate and contestation over the intended message and tone. Many interpret see, the poem as joyous and loving; others, including myself, view it with disgust and pity. The boy in this poem expresses his feelings toward his relationship between his father and himself. He possesses an attitude, which gives an example of the poet 's ironic tone. The poetic language and poem structure create on the whole an explicit image, which assists in denoting the ideal significance of the poem.…
In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, both the poems are about the poet’s relationship with their father when they were young. Both fathers work as laborers and both poets appreciates their father for their hard work, but they have a distant relationship with them.…
Now I'm going to discuss the three poems that im going to explain afterwards. Now these three poems shows us childhood and its general view from every character as we see the poets describe situation or part of there life that's likely to be a part of there life , every one of them feels and senses and remembers his days when he was a child having a mother and a father but there are differences between the three poets about there sadness and happiness and if they were really happy expressing there feelings in the poem or really sad about what had gone and never come back regretting that they got old and being men and never seeing the past but in these poems they see it when they smell, feel and hear something so as we see the three poems that will make child hood having more appearance is half past two by u.a.fanthorpe and piano by Dh.lawerence and my parents kept me from children who were rough by Stephen spender.…