“My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sunday’s”

Papas in Poetry

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" and Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" are widely-anthologized, contemporary American poems.

We will be reading these poems to get a sense of how poets use language to create meaning.

Throughout this PowerPoint questions will be raised and examples will be given. You do not need to answer these questions specifically.

Rather, think about what these questions suggest about how the poems “mean” in a literary sense.

At the end of the PowerPoint, you will be asked to write a 1-2 page written analysis in which you compare the two poems in terms of content and style.

Analyzing Poetic Devices: Robert

Hayden's “Those Winter Sundays”

and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”

We will be looking at both the content and the form of these two poems, and closely analyzing how each poem's use of poetic devices helps to convey and emphasize the poem's meaning.

We will be taking a new critical approach and doing a “close reading” and analysis of "Those Winter Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz" in an in-depth way. In order to get to a deeper understanding of certain poetic devices and the intricate relationship between a poem’s content and its form.

How do Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke incorporate poetic devices to convey meaning in "Those Winter Sundays" and "My Papa's Waltz"?

How does the form of each poem relate to its content?

Guiding Formalist Questions

Define and understand in context common poetic devices, such as alliteration, consonance, and repetition.

Discuss poetic meter and rhythm and its relationship to theme.

Compare and contrast poems theme via active class discussion.

Provide a well-supported, written analysis of the relationship between a poem's form and its content.

Objectives

Read “Those Winter Sundays”

Listen to Roethke read “My Papa’s Waltz” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/

prmMID/18045

What is this poem about? How would you describe the

speaker's father and the relationship between the poem's speaker and his father?

How do you define the words "offices" and "austere"?

Do these words seem appropriate to the poem? Why or why not?

Those Winter Sundays

What is this poem about?

How would you describe the relationship between this poem's speaker and his father?

How would you compare this father/son relationship with the relationship portrayed in the Hayden poem?

My Papa’s Waltz

Point out specific details from "Those Winter Sundays" that lead to your assessment of the poem's meaning

Specifically, point out details in their description of the father/son relationship

Analyzing Poetic Devices: Consonance, Assonance, and Repetition

blueblack cold,

cracked hands that ached

banked fires blaze

Sound in the First Stanza

clothes …black coldcrackedachedweekdaybankedthanked

Alliteration and consonance

How do these hard "c" and "k" sounds (consonance) contribute to the mood of this opening stanza?

What effect does this example of consonance have on the speaker's characterization of his father? Why or how?

Why do you think, "No one ever thanked him.”?

When you hear this stanza, what do these sounds inherently sound like (despite the words' meanings)?

Identify consonance and assonance in the rest of “Those Winter Sundays”

Think about what Hayden might mean when he writes, "fearing the chronic angers of the house.“

Is this poem written in a particular form?

Write 1-2 pages analyzing either “My Papa’s Waltz” or “Those Winter Sundays.”

Discuss the language used in the poem to create meaning.

Quote phrases or lines from the poem to illustrate your ideas.

Your paper should follow proper MLA format

Short Written Assignment:

Literary Analysis of a Poem