Comparing My Papa's Waltz 'And Those Winter Sundays'

Love Found Within Both poems are about a man's memories of his boyhood relationship with his Father. However, the experiences are very different. In " Those Winter Sundays" the father son relationship is carried by both father and son's in ability to communicate their love for each other. The total opposite is found in " My Papa's Waltz," the love and communication is all present. With or without the communications it is clear, that the fathers love for his son and family is unconditional.

"Those Winter Sundays" is a short poem packed with meaning. For example, the it uses one event to explain a fathers whole relationship with his son. We find out from the first line that his father is a the central figure of the poem. Throughout the poem the father is depliced as a hard working man, " cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather." This part of the poem serves as a symbol for all the pain and discomfort the father is willing to go through for his family.
An auditory image is introduced in the second stanza, " I'd wake up and hear the cold splintering, breaking." I interpreted this as the boy hearing the fire that his father man, crackling. The cold "splintering" and "breaking" showed him that his father was powerful, he could "break" the cold out of the house. The warm house on those winter Sundays symbolized the love the father had for his family.

It is interesting that this poem has been about a father's love, and sacrifices, but one line states, "I would rise and dress/fearing the chronic angers of that house." "Chronic angers" compares the angers of the house to a disease that would not go away. The father was a harsh man that scared his children, but deep down inside he loved them very much. His chronic anger was more evident and powerful. The children could not see beyond the violent display of anger to see the love that lied