Cracked & Battered Dads

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden and My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke are two deeply thought through, and intensely strong poems about similar, loving and hard working fathers. These are quintessential manly, wood chopping and alcohol drinking dads, "battered knuckles" and all. These poems lead us to believe that these dads weren't always easily lived with or understood, they seemed harsh, and disciplined, or undisciplined, but they still seemed to make time to fulfill their duties as fathers to their young sons. These poets, the sons, express nostalgic admiration for their fathers as they look back to their relationships with these dads.

"Sundays too my father got up early/ put his clothes on in the blueback cold,/ then with hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blazed." These few lines of the opening stanza are the most clear and important in the entire poem written by Robert Hayden. It captures the dads true essence. Even on his day off, he still works to keep his family comfortable and living. He makes fires in the excruciating winter mornings, not caring about the pain stabbing through his hands. "...fearing the chronic angers of that house..." the son "...spoke indifferently to him." The offspring didn't see his dad for what the man had to offer. He also "...polished my good shoes as well..."  The father may have been angry and hard core but he fulfilled all parental obligations in order to satisfy his indifferent son. In the end he, the father, is successful as the poet looks back on these melancholy days with regrets about the apathy he showed towards his father, and with a new felt respect for his love and help, "What did I know, what did I know/ of loves austere and lonely offices."

While the parental love in Robert Hayden's poem was as cold as the winter mornings in which he chopped wood, the love of the father written about in Theodore Roethke's poem was much more indulgent, with "...whiskey on your breath..." Throughout this composition, the son "clings" to his father as he ''hung on like death.'' The fathers inebriation lead to waltzes in which father and son bonded, but also lead to family turmoil, " We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf;/ my mothers countenance/ could not unfrown itself." she could not pry the enraged look off her face. Even though the dad seemed to be an undisciplined, hard drinker, his "...Battered on one knuckle..." hand represents a blue collar work ethic, meaning he supplied for his family. This poet clings on to this memory as he clung to his dads shirt when put to bed.

These two poets loved their dads. In Hayden's experience, it took a while, he was indifferent to his father and didn't warm up to him for a long time, while in Roethke's experience, he loved his father right off the bat, he clung to his dads shirt for dear life, if he let go there was no telling what would have happened. These dads fulfilled their duty of loving and providing for their families despite their  manly hard souls. These two poems are depressing, yet touching and beautifully satisfying.