Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" and Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" are poems that describe a relationship between a father and son. The speakers in both works are looking back on their childhoods, primarily their relationships with their fathers. The fathers in these poems had unique ways of expressing love thus making the relationships with their sons atypical. One can see the difference in the poems through the tones the speakers used. Although "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" are both poems that reflect on fatherly love, they diverge in the speakers' attitudes towards their fathers.
             The speakers of both "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" are reflecting on their relationships with their fathers. Both fathers loved their children, but they expressed it differently. In "My Papa's Waltz", the speaker says that his fathers hand was "caked hard by dirt"(Roethke 14), which portrays his father as a hard worker. His father showed his family that he loved them by working hard to provide for them and by playing with his child. This whole poem illustrates a fun playtime for a father and son. Even though the father had enough whiskey on his breath to "make a small boy dizzy"(Roethke 2), his son loved to be with him.
             The speaker in "Those Winter Sundays" says, "Sundays too my father got up early" (Hayden 1). This describes the father's love for his family. It shows that he worked hard all week long to support them, and instead of resting on Sunday morning, he woke up early to make the house warm for his family. But the father did more than just warm the house; the speaker says he "polished my good shoes as well" (Hayden 12). This really shows the depth of the love that the father had for his son. However, the father did not dis...