Those Winter Sundays Poem Analysis

“Those winter Sundays” is a poem in which the author narrates his experience as a child living with his father. The writer starts by saying “Sunday too my father got up early.” It is to be noted that he was conveying how early his father gets up every morning and even on Sundays, supposedly a holiday for his dad. Next, the author narrates how hard his dad works and what type of job he has. “Then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” this phrase reveals that the authors father was not an accountant nor a teacher with a desk job but a person involved in physical labor; in addition, “cracked hands” disclose how tough his work was. In the second strophe, “I would rise and dress fearing the chronic angers of that house”
In both incidents, the writer expresses their experiences with troubled fathers. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the author says, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt” which carries almost the same meaning as “I could see his quiet face in the rearview mirror, eyes like hallways filled with smoke” from “Nighttime Fires.” Both phrases identify their father’s bumpiness and conveys a picture of physical assault to the reader. Roethke states, “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” and Barreca expresses, “When I was five in Louisville we drove to see nighttime fires.” These phrases identify the shared struggle experienced by both authors in their poems. They share a mutual test of self-control that helps them tolerate their father. In the same way, in both poems there is also a Mother who refuses to show dominance and gives in to his man. “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” is a touching expression used by Theodore Roethke, to show how depressed his mother was. On the other hand, Regina Barreca states, “She was happy only when we were ready to go.” It could be agreed that both mothers are in a lot of pain and their sympathy is clearly identified to the