<p>"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden 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? from COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT HAYDEN, 1985 Discussion: What's the story of this poem? What's the plot? What's going on here? Who is the speaker (or narrator? or persona?) What do you know about the father?</p><p>What do you think about words and phrases like: "blueblack cold" "the cold splintering, breaking" "chronic angers of that house" </p><p>Which is the most literal line of the poem and what does it mean? </p><p>Why does the father polish his "good shoes" as well? </p><p>Then we get to the last two lines, "What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?" What does "austere" and "office" mean? </p><p>"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing is 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. from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THEODORE ROETHKE, 1966 Questions: What is the "story" of the poem? </p><p>What do you know about the father? </p><p>The mother, looking on, feels how? What does the young boy feel as he holds on "like death" to his father who beats "time on [his] head"? Why is Roethke's simple poem unsettling? How is the waltz of the title is ironic? Do you like "My Papa's Waltz" better than "Those Winter Sundays"? Why or why not?</p>