The Elements of Poetry - Essay Example

English December 13, The Elements of Poetry Essay Childhood experiences can shape up a person’s life. All of ushave a childhood memory which we cherished and some parts which we wish we could forget. “Late Poem to My Father” by Sharon Olds and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden reflects on their childhood days and reminisces about the past. Both the poets talks about their childhood experiences in a different mood. Sharon Olds Born was born in San Francisco on November 19, 1942, and she earned a BA at Stanford University and a PhD at Columbia University.

Her poetry talks about life and acceptance and one of the reviewer for New York Times writes’ "Her work has a robust sensuality, a delight in the physical that is almost Whitmanesque. She has made the minutiae of a woman's everyday life as valid a subject for poetry as the grand abstract themes that have preoccupied other poets" (Olds). Robert Hayden was born on August 4, 1913 and he was a celebrated American poet and an educator. The poems “Late Poem to My Father” by Sharon Olds and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden portrays their childhood life and takes the readers on an emotional journey.

Sharon Olds’ poem “Late Poem to My Father” illustrates the effect of a childhood trauma and how it can effect adulthood. The tone of the poem is sad and it evoke the traumatic childhood of her father. The narrator gives her childhood a voice and she experienced an epiphany in which she tries to understand her father’s abusive behavior and even forgive him for all the heartache. The poet uses imagery to bring out her father’s experience as a child, “as a child in that house, the unlit rooms and the hot fireplace with the man in front of it, silent” (Olds).

She sees her father as how he was as a child in a bleak house where “something was / not given to you, or something was / taken from you . . .” (Olds). The poet uses descriptive details to illustrate the dark, bleak and cold image of the setting. She described the house with “unlit rooms” where love was not given to her father. She gives the details of the tragic loss of innocence using powerful imagery in the first half of the poem. Apart from that she also skillfully uses figurative language and cleaver line breaks throughout the poem.

All these set the tone and the mood to develop the sadness and unspeakable sorrow she feels for her father’s childhood days. In the first seven lines of the poem, the poet uses descriptive figure of speech to establish the dark and warm image of the setting. The contrast can be seen in lines two and three where the poet describes the house as "unlit rooms" and a "hot fireplace". This is mainly use to exemplify the fact that their childhood was cold and harsh, but she forgives the past. At the end of the poem, she wishes that the love she has for her father could somehow compromise her father’s childhood days and somehow delivered him from becoming an alcoholic who mistreated his family.

In the poem, "Those Winter Sundays", Robert Hayden reminisces about his childhood days. In this poem, he reveals the emotions he has for his father using a deep and powerful imagery. In the poem he uses sonic devise to illustrate the dramatic effects of his word. The sonic device dramatizes the complicated relationship between the father and a son. With controlled changes of rhythm and consonance, Hayden examines the characters in the poem. The tone of the poem is regretful. The poet is sorry for not appreciating what his father had done for him and his sacrifice to give them a good life, “what did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?

” (Hayden). He also gives warm images to illustrate the respect and appreciation for his father. Hayden starts off the poem using a cold imagery to reflect on his father’s daily routine, “put his clothes on in the blue-black cold” (Hayden). He described the cold winter and his father’s “cracked hands”. In the second stanza, the poet uses the words like, "cold, splintering breaking" to strengthen the cold image of the situation that his father was working with to feed his family. The repeated use of the harsh settings and the cold imagery exemplifies his father’s successes despite the harsh situation.

The poet use of tone is also justifiable with the settings and the imagery. With the images he represents his father’s toughness and in the last stanzas he regrets that he never had the time thank him for all that his father had done for the family. Both the poem reflects about the childhood life of the poets. But, they both have different experiences. The tone of Sharon Olds’ poem “Late Poem to My Father” is sad, but on the other hand the tone of Robert Hayden "Those Winter Sundays" is regretful.

Both the poem use an imagery and Figures of speech to illustrate their childhood experiences. Sharon Olds poem transforms us to an insightful journey of sorrow, forgiveness and eventually acceptance while Robert Hayden’s poem makes us think about our relationship with our loved ones and how we should be grateful for their love before it is too late. Sharon Olds’ poem “Late Poem to My Father” Work Cited Bartolomi, David. Sharon Olds. Poets.org. 1997. Web. Dec. 13, 2011. Hayden, Robert.

Those Winter Sundays. Poetry Foundation. 1995. Web. Dec. 13, 2011. Macdonald, Marianne. Old’s Worlds. The Guardian. 2008. Web. Dec. 13, 2011. Olds, Sharon. Late Poem to My Father. American Public Media. 2005. Web. Dec. 13, 2011.