Two Poems

Essay 2: A Short Comparison of Two Poems Why is it that people write poems? Sometimes, it seems that authors write poems to confuse or to mislead. As most would know, poems aren’t actually written for that purpose. They are written to amuse and enlighten in a critical thinking way. Poems are like secret passages with deep meanings within the lines and rhythms; after being pulled apart and analyzed, they can leave your mind blown. I will be comparing “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke with another poem titled “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. In both poems the speaker is reminiscing on events that happened in the past, the fathers in both poems are showing affection by doing things for their children rather than saying, and lastly, both pieces share similar tones leaving the audience with some kind of strong feelings about their own father, good or bad. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays” have many differences, and fewer, but very important similarities. Roethke portrays this poem as being deadly in the beginning. He makes you think after the first two lines that it may end badly by starting the poem with, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy”. This indicates that the father has been drinking heavily. Using the word ‘death’ can make the reader feel scared about the fathers drinking, and intrigued to learn more. The second stanza lightens up a bit, “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf”. The father is ‘cutting up’ with his son in a playful way. The audience can be aware of the fact that just because the father is drunk, doesn’t completely mean he is dangerous like we had originally been lead to believe in the beginning. This poem is speaking in past tense, letting us know that this was something the writer had experienced as a young child.