Poetry Reviews: Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays", written in 1962, and Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz", written in 1942, are both works of poetry featuring memories of their meticulous fathers when they themselves, Roethke and Hayden, were children. Each poem is written by its respective author in their middle to late years indicating that they lived with their pent-up emotions for quite some time before putting pen to paper, or at least having their works published. Roethke writes with an enthusiastic rhythm in his bedtime ode to his inebriated father, where as Hayden recalls moments of guilt and regret in his early morning sonnet about his very assiduous father.

Theodore Roethke's rough and tumble journey to bed in "My Papa's Waltz", led by his drunken father was an eventful, yet affectionate memory. The first verse reads "The whisky on your breathe could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy" demonstrating that the father had been drinking and that the son anxiously held on for the routine bedtime ride. While father might be in poor graces with mother as indicated in verse two "We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother's countenance could not unfrown itself," Roethke is clearly having fun playing with his intoxicated, but fun loving father and seemingly doesn't want the playful moment to end, as stated in the last verse "You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt."

Robert Hayden's sonnet about his diligent father in "Those Winter Sundays", is filled with guilt and regret of opportunities lost, first indicated in lines three through five of verse one "...Then with cracked hands that ached, from labor in the weekday weather made, banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him" Hayden's father would arise early in the morning to light a fire so the family could wake to a warm home, but was never awarded the appreciation he deserved. The final verse reads, "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?" implying guilt and regret over taking his father for granted.

Both Roethke and Hayden were young boys in their recollections of their respective, kindhearted fathers, but Theodore Roethke writes to his father where as Hayden is writing about his father. Both were older men when they scribed their words indicating that they lived with their contained emotions for quite some time. Again, Roethke writes with an enthusiastic rhythm in his bedtime ode to his inebriated father, where as Hayden recalls moments of guilt and regret in his early morning sonnet about his diligent father.