The Complex Relations between Fathers and Children in Poetry - Research Paper Example

? Afroz Ali Teacher: 21, Nov, The Complex Relations between Fathers and Children in the Poetry of Robert Hayden, Rhina Espaillat and Theodore Roethke The Complex Relations between Fathers and Children inthe Poetry of Robert Hayden, Rhina Espaillatand Theodore Roethke The relation of between father and children is complex.There is anger, fear, frustration other mixed emotion for both the father and children for each other. However, one feeling that outweighs every other feeling between a father and child relation is the feeling of love and affection towards each other. Though it’s almost impossible to put together in words a father’s emotions for his children or a child’s feelings for their father yet a lot of writers have tried covering up complex yet this beautiful relation in effort to try understanding what a father, child relation is about and about why the relation is so complex. Various poems have been written by different poets,in which the affection of a father or a bond between father and a son, or between any other family members has been depicted. However, ‘Those Winters Sundays’, Bilingual/Bilingueand ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ are three of the poems that particularly depict the relation between father and children. However, these three poems aren’t too simple for every reader to understand in the first glance. This paper will discuss and explain these poems in this paper so that all the readers can understand the meanings that are either hidden in the context of the poems or they aren’t as discernible as they could have been. Before each poem is explained, compared and contrasted with each other, a brief introduction of each poet will be provided in the paper. The background of each poet as well as their writing style will also be discussed along with their introduction. Rhina P. Espalliat and her background Rhina P. Espaillat was basically from the Dominican Republic that was under the Trujillo regime. Espaillat, however, moved to New York in her adulthood and here she started writing poetry. She wrote poems in English and Spanish and gained fame in both languages. Her poem Bilingual/Bilingue is one of the best works of her career. It is important to mention Rhina P. Espaillat, and particularly her poem Bilingual/Bilingue in this research paper because the obscurity of her work is similar to the other two poets we discussed above. However, this is not the only reason why we are discussing her. We are also discussing this great poetess because her poem Bilingual/Bilingue has a strong connection to the poems ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ and ‘Those Winter Sundays’, respectively by Roethke and Hayden. Robert Hayden, his background and writing style While talking about Robert Hayden, we have to remind ourselves that he was one of the poets who were known for their complex lyrics that were hard for everyone to understand. As stated by Hartmann and Wigdor; “Thirty feet of correspondence, notebooks, journals, and drafts of his literary work will give cultural historians a context for understanding the haunting lyricism of Robert Hayden” (Hartman et al. 170). As Wood mentions, Hayden wasn’t a very fortunate kid. He had to face a lot of difficulties as a child as his parents got separated soon after his birth. When he was only 18 months old, he was given to his next door neighbors so that they can take care of him. His neighbors gave him a new name but he was never lawfully adopted. However, Hayden loved his foster father to whom he dedicated ‘Those Winter Sundays’.(“screen”) Since Hayden was a black man, he had faced situations that he didn’t like throughout his life. He continued to use his experiences as well as observations to come up with poems like ‘Night, Death, Mississippi’ and ‘middle passage’. Through these two poems Hayden depicted the element of violence that was towards a certain group of people in particular. “…that there was hardly room 'tween-decks for half the sweltering cattle stowed spoon-fashion there; that some went mad of thirst and tore their flesh and sucked the blood.” (Hatcher) [Excerpt from the ‘Middle Passage’ by Robert Hayden] As Hatcher mentions about another poem called ‘Night, Death, Missisppi’: “Hayden uses a family of lychers in this poem to illustrate . . . the possibility of inherited evil becoming 'diastole, systole,/ reflex action'. Returning home at night after mutilating Black men, this rural father jovially relates to the mother how it went:” (Hatcher) “Then we beat them, he said, beat them till our arms was tired and the big old chains messy and red” “Christ, it was better than hunting bear which don't know why you want him dead.”[Excerpt from the ‘Night, Death, Missisppi’ by Robert Hayden] Theodore Roethke, his background and style of writing Theodore Roethke, on the other hand, was probably even more complex with his verses. Majority of the readers of his poems found his work obscure and incomprehensible in the first read. However, I agree with Southworth, as he says that; “with re-reading, many of the difficulties disappear; many also remain. It is not that Roethke has lost his competence, but that he is using symbol to communicate his probings into his subconscious world of dissociated ideas. The reader who is unhappy unless he can explicate every line will be unhappy. But if the poems unfolded themselves in a neat pattern they would reflect the conflicts and gropings less effectively than they do. I do not feel that Roethke is wholly successful in the poems until he has freed himself.” (Southworth) Robert Hyden and father, son relation ‘Those Winter Sundays’ is one of the best and far famed works of Hayden. The poem tells about the relation of a father and son in a very effective manner because Hayden wrote the poem with his experience and not by observing others. I agree with Fetrow, as he says that; “Those Winter Sundays, is stylistically different from his other famous poems such as the Middle Passage and Runagate Runagate”. (Fetrowpp. 130-131) Unlike rest of Hayden’s work, Those Winter Sundays isn’t about race at all. It’s about a strong father-child relationship and all the mixed feelings that come with it. “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.” [Excerpt from ‘Those Winter Sundays’ by Robert Hayden] Rhina P. Espalliat and father, daughter relation Let’s take a look at an important part of Espaiilat’s Bilingual/Bilingue. “English outside this door, Spanish inside,” he said, “y basata.” But who can divide the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from any child? I knew how to be dumb and stubborn (testaruda);  late, in bed, I hoarded secret syllables I read until my tongue (mi lengua) learned to run where his stumbled. And still the heart was one. I like to think he knew that, even when, proud (orgulloso) of his daughter’s pen, he stood outside mis versos, half in fear of words he loved but wanted not to hear.”[Excerpt from the ‘Bilingual/Bilingue’.by Rhina P. Espalliat] The relation depicted in the above mentioned verses between father and daughter is complex. Different people will interpret the poem in different ways. In the given poem, the father is telling her daughter to keep a difference between their primary language and the secondary language. “English outside the door, Spanish inside,” he says. He doesn’t like her daughter utilizing foreign language over their mother tongue. As the daughter hears these words, she is perplexed about how she should actually deal with the situation. Some people will blame that the father is only concerned about his heritage and doesn’t like his daughter speaking any other language than the one their ancestors spoke and carried forward. However, my point of view about his father’s words is completely different. As I see it, he wants to not miss out on the simple things in life that he can experience with his beloved daughter, just because of the barrier of an alien language. I think that the father doesn’t want to fail as a parent who wouldn’t be able to effectively communicate with his daughter while she grows up. I see the love and care that this father has for his daughter. It’s neither about the language that is being spoken nor he is being discourteous to his daughter, instead he wants to keep his bond with his daughter strong. Theodore Roethke and father, son relation Theodore Roethke had a conflicted relationship with his father, which he portrayed in his poem "My Papa's Waltz". Roethke loved his father but at the same time feared him. Roethke’s childhood world was filled with the wonders of the natural world. His father used to work extremely hard on the woods area near his home. Roethke’s father died of cancer when Roethke was only fifteen. This incident changed his entire life and even when he became a famous poet he couldn’t run away from the memories of his childhood days with his father thus wrote poems surrounding his past. However, the poem portrays two different pictures. It is a memory of a father who is dancing in the kitchen and annoying his wife. It is supposed to be a happy memory but the poem actually has been considered controversial. While some people think the poem portrays a good memory of a child, others think that the memory has an element of violence and is about an abusive and alcoholic father. Let’s read the context taken from the very poem ‘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.” [ ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ by Theodore Roethke] Conclusion and Analysis Though each of the poems that have been discussed in this paper is written from different prospective and ideas by poets of different writing styles, there is one common element visible in each poem. It is the element of love and affection between fathers and children. The father, children relation is indeed complex and two of the discussed poems show fathers not being so polite with their children when it comes to using certain words in certain situations. However, despite of the father in the poem Bilingual/Bilingueis seemingly being unreasonable with his daughter and the father in My Papa’s Waltz is drunk, possibly abusive to his wife, and not a good role model to his son, the relation between each father and child is strong, full of love and care. Thus there are feelings of love, admiration, fear, misunderstanding and even hate that you can find in each of these poems, which depict the complex relation between father and children. However, all these writers, while writing these poems concentrated on the father children relation instead of centering the poems on other elements that they usually utilized or portrayed in their other pieces of work. Works Cited Fetrow. M. Reviewed by William H. Hansell. Robert Hayden. Black Literature Forum. Vol. 19, No. 3. 1985. pp. 130-131. Louis University. Oct23. 2007. Web. Oct27. 2013.   Hatcher John. Modern American Poetry. From the Auroral Darkness: The Life and Poetry of Robert Hayden by John Hatcher, 1984. Web. Nov21. 2013. . Hartmann. M. and Wigdor. David. Robert Hayden Papers by Robert Hayden. The Journal of American History, Organization of American Historians. Vol. 76, No. 1, June. 1989. P. 170. Web. 17Nov. 2013. . Hatcher John. Modern American Poetry. From the Auroral Darkness: The Life and Poetry of Robert Hayden by John Hatcher, 1984. Web. Nov21. 2013. . Michael Wood.Kerry.Poetry Analysis: Those Winter Sundays. Mandy’s Pages, 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. ‹ http://www.mandys-pages.com/poetry/poetry-analysis/50-those-winter-sundays>. Southworth. James G. The Poetry of Theodore Roethke. College English. Vol. 21, No. 6. Mar. 1960. Web. 27Oct. 2013. National Council of Teachers of English. . Read More