This is a comparative paper These are the 2 poems I compare · Mainly need to modify the grammar first · And embellish/modify every topic sentence of each body paragraph and the conclusion. · Need to add transition words, like conjunctions, to make the essay more fluent, some places are too rigid · Modify some bad descriptions · Need to add more content · Anyway, modify in the way that you think will make the paper better My Papa’s Waltz The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt. Those Winter Sundays Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? Qikai Gao Professor Anderson English 101 November 26, 2019 The Relationship between Father and Son is Complex In our lives, father plays a very important in family. As a man, he needs to take responsibilities of his family. Furthermore, the relationship between father and son is so complex. In the poem, My Papa’s Waltz which is written by Theodore Roethke, it talks about the dance waltz between father and son. The story shows that protagonist recollect his child memories that a father had a funny dance with him. In another poem, Those Winter Sundays, which is written by Robert Hayden, it talks a father works so hard in the workdays, but he still gets up early in every Sunday morning to make everything ready and then wakes up his children. These two poems illustrate two different relationships between fathers and sons. Father always plays a significant character in son’s mind. One kind of nature love is father and his children. Father always show his love with action, which is selfless and not for reward. In general, sons always have conflicts with their fathers. After all, they still have emotional connections. Therefore, the relationship between father and son may be controversial but is also emotional. The words in these two poems can really show the atmospheres and feelings between fathers and sons. For example, in My Papa’s Waltz, “But I hung on like death Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke 15-16). This shows protagonist and his father both are not so good at wa ...

1. This is a comparative paper
These are the 2 poems I compare
· Mainly need to modify the grammar first
· And embellish/modify every topic sentence of each body
paragraph and the conclusion.
· Need to add transition words, like conjunctions, to make the
essay more fluent, some places are too rigid
· Modify some bad descriptions
· Need to add more content
· Anyway, modify in the way that you think will make the paper
better
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

2. Those Winter Sundays
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Qikai Gao
Professor Anderson
English 101
November 26, 2019
The Relationship between Father and Son is Complex
In our lives, father plays a very important in family. As a man,
he needs to take responsibilities of his family. Furthermore, the
relationship between father and son is so complex. In the poem,
My Papa’s Waltz which is written by Theodore Roethke, it talks
about the dance waltz between father and son. The story shows
that protagonist recollect his child memories that a father had a
funny dance with him. In another poem, Those Winter Sundays,
which is written by Robert Hayden, it talks a father works so
hard in the workdays, but he still gets up early in every Sunday
morning to make everything ready and then wakes up his
children. These two poems illustrate two different relationships

3. between fathers and sons. Father always plays a significant
character in son’s mind. One kind of nature love is father and
his children. Father always show his love with action, which is
selfless and not for reward. In general, sons always have
conflicts with their fathers. After all, they still have emotional
connections. Therefore, the relationship between father and son
may be controversial but is also emotional.
The words in these two poems can really show the atmospheres
and feelings between fathers and sons. For example, in My
Papa’s Waltz, “But I hung on like death Such waltzing was not
easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf”
(Roethke 15-16). This shows protagonist and his father both are
not so good at waltz, but they still dance together. And the
father wants to have funny dance with his son after drunk and
he loves his son. “Hung on like death” illustrates son also really
wants to dance with his father even he doesn’t know how to
dance waltz at all (Roethke 15-16). He wants to have his
father’s company. In the poem, Those Winter Sundays,
“Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and
polished my good shoes as well” (Hayden 10-11). Protagonist’s
father has done all preparing work before children get up, but
protagonist still have the same attitude to his father. This can
really show the father’s selflessness and the love to his
children. The father knows he has the responsibilities of taking
care of this family, so even in the Sundays morning, he still gets
up so early to get the housework done. However, the son didn’t
appreciate his father and speak “indifferently” to his father. The
word “indifferently” indicates that the father sacrifices a lot for
this family, but his children have not realized those contribution
and be aware of being grateful. These two poems both use some
specific words to convey those complex relationships. These
words are so appropriate to exhibit the feelings between fathers
and sons. Sons needs fathers’ company to grow up and they can
also learn some good qualities from their fathers such as being
responsible and selfless. However, there are also other
interpretations of these two poems. In the poem, My Papa’s

4. Waltz, “The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy
dizzy” (Roethke 1-2). This shows protagonist’s father is a drunk
and ignore his child’s feelings and abuse his child. Moreover, in
the poem, Those Winter Sundays, “Sundays too my father got
up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (Hayden
1-2). This sentence builds a serious atmosphere and make
everything different. The son might not have ties of kin with his
father, so everything father have done just because of his
obligation which is like the work in job. These two different
interpretations are reasonable but is too extreme, nevertheless,
they are still a perfect example to show the magic of poems.
The words can make readers have a lot of thought of their
relationships. In short, the relationships between fathers and
sons are different from family to family, but the fathers always
love their children and are willing to do everything for their
children.
Symbolisms of these two poems are also an important part
to illustrate the relationship between father and son. In both
poems, it is obvious that the fathers are always hardworking,
and their hands are destroyed by work. For example, in My
Papa’s Waltz, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one
knuckle” (Roethke 9-10). In Those Winter Sundays, “then with
cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather
made banked fire blaze” (Hayden 3-5). Fathers are always bread
makers in the family, and they are so exhausted because they
need to work and take care of their families. Even though, they
work in a harsh environment, they still help to manage houses.
There is not a lot of infers in My Papa’s Waltz, but there are
enough illustrations in Those Winter Sundays. The father in
Those Winter Sundays also need to do a lot of work to make
sure his children have a comfortable zone to live. The word
“Sundays” means the father would do the work in every Sunday.
This poem is meant to sing the praise of sacrifice that father has
done to the family, even though he can’t get any reward. Both
poems also convey the emotions that how sons feel about their
fathers. Based on the background information, author of My

5. Papa’s Waltz didn’t have father’s company in his childhood and
really miss his father. This poem is trying to depict a picture
that father has a good time with his son. He is eager to get his
father’s attentions and love. The dance waltz involves
interaction and emotion transferring. However, father and son
both cannot have a good move of waltz, which form a contrast
with elegant waltz. It shows the relationship between father and
son is emotional and contradictory. Nevertheless, the poem,
“Those Winter Sundays”, is trying to portray a hard-working,
serious and selfless father. The father sacrifices a lot for this
family, such as making “banked fire blaze”, waking up children
and polishing their shoes (Hayden). Even when father do a lot
of work in the Sunday morning, but no one thank him. This
poem is trying to convey the feelings that children miss the
chance to thank their father who have sacrificed a lot. In this
way, the personality of father is greater, and father is like a
lonely soldier fighting the battle, but he is still persistent to do
it in every winter Sundays. All in short, fathers are kind of
lighthouse to their children. Fathers sacrifice themselves to
make children’s lives better. They won’t stop their loving
actions due to the relationship with their sons.
These two poems use different angles to illustrate the
relationship between fathers and sons. In My Papa’s Waltz,
“The whiskey on your breath /Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy” (Roethke
1-4). The son dance waltz with his drunk father and the son
might get hurt. However, during their dance, there is so many
emotions behind this funny waltz and the mess which is caused
by their steps rather than just superficial chaos. Totally,
atmosphere in that house is warm and bright. This poem mainly
wants to show the interdependence between fathers and sons.
Contrast, in Those Winter Sundays, author lay a “blueblack”
atmosphere which is totally different from which in My Papa’s
Waltz. “Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the
cold and polished my good shoes as well” (Hayden 10- 12). The
relationship between father and son in this poem is not

6. harmonious. Even the father has done so many housework to
make the son live better, “No one ever thanked him” (Hayden
4). Actually, behind this embarrassing relationship, it is eager
for being grateful to his father. In general, the son in My Papa’s
Waltz wants to get his father’s care and love. Therefore, even
though his father is drunk, he is still willing to dance waltz
which he is not good at all with his father. This scene is easy to
achieve in the normal family, but for author, it is luxurious,
because his father passed away in his childhood. Nevertheless,
in Those Winter Sundays, after so much the son’s father has
done, the son speaks “indifferently” to him. This word makes
the emotion what author wants to convey reach a climax. In this
poem, author is more likely to depict a picture that the son and
father have controversial relationship. Author wants to use this
non-harmonious relationship and serious atmosphere to make a
contrast with the emotion that author wants to convey. The
emotion is to compliment selflessness and responsibleness of
the father. All in short, the combination of two poems is a
perfect way to illustrate that father and son is controversial but
emotional. Both poems build strong connections between father
and sons, and they can have resonation with readers. Children
might argue with their father or they might not get along well
with their fathers, but they still share a bloodline and they still
love each other.
In conclusion, children depend on their fathers because
their fathers always help them to solve and manage all kinds of
problems and stuffs. Sons might have quarrel with their fathers,
but in deep heart, they love each other. Some sons really want
to have their father’s company, some sons do not have chance to
thank their father. No matter in My Papa’s Waltz or in Those
Winter Sundays, they both illustrate the father’s importance and
the emotional connection between fathers and sons. Father
always loves his family and wants his family to have a better
life. No matter what happens between fathers and sons, fathers
always treat their sons with a heart full of love. Actually, the
relationship between father and son is simple, that is they

7. always love each other, and they just use different ways to
show.
Works Citied
Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays.” The Carolina Reader,
edited by Kelsey Flint-Martin with Ethan J.H. Knight, U of UC-
Press, 2019, pp. 310-311.
Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa’s Waltz.” The Carolina Reader,
edited by Kelsey Flint-Martin with Ethan J.H. Knight, U of UC-
Press, 2019, pp. 310-311.