The poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden both introduce a working class father and the bond with their children. In both poems the speaker focuses on a memory from when they were a child. In “Those Winter Sundays”, the father is faced with unnoticed love from his children. They take his hard work for granted even when he wakes up early on Sundays, his day to relax, to do chores. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, a memory of the speaker and their father is revealed, we are introduced to a father that is a very hard worker and has a drink of whiskey to settle in after a long day of labor. After that customary routine is over, he waltzes his son to bed, almost every night.
“Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papas Waltz” both share the same concept and theme. They’re both about relationships and bonds between a father and his children. Both poems are portrayed as a memory. In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker looks back on all the chores and hard labor his dad did for him. “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in a blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.” This quote is saying that even on the father’s day off from work, he still gets up early and works. Because the father had cracked hands, you can infer that he worked hard. No one ever thanked him or appreciated what he did. The speaker took his father’s labor and hard work for granted, until he looked back at the past and realized that he was just showing love, something he never received from his children. The speaker regrets not showing the love his father deserves.
Although there are bonds in both poems, they are not exactly the same kind. In “My Papa’s Waltz” we’re brought into a memory of a usual evening with another hard working father who’s described as loving and caring with “palms caked hard with dirt, and whiskey breath that could make a small boy dizzy.” We can infer that he was also a hard worker as well. The bond between the father and his son is much stronger than the one in “Those Winter Sundays”. The father has a usual routine, when he comes home, he likes to have a whiskey to settle in and relax. It is possible to infer he may have had a little to much to drink since his breath could make a small boy dizzy. Their bonding is in a fun and gentle way, just like waltzing off to bed. “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.” This quote is saying that the father is more of the outgoing parent and wants to have fun with his on since he doesn't see him a lot. The father and son were very much into the waltzing that they didn’t realize the pans fell. This caused the mothers’ frown as she looked at the close bond they had.
In conclusion, both poems share the same theme with having working class families and how they have bonded with their children. Both fathers are similar, they are both very hard workers but, they have very different bonds with their sons. For some families in the world this isn’t a poem to them, it is a reality. Some fathers aren't appreciated for the work they do for their kids and families. The take home message or theme from this poem is that love is shown in different ways and nothing lasts forever so take nothing for granted.
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