Well-known Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud once said "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection".  Protection doesn't just mean that of from physical danger, protection encompasses much more.  In Lucille Clifton's poem "forgiving my father" the fatherly protection needed by the speaker is obviously that of a financial standpoint, and possibly even an emotional standpoint stemming off of that. Then taking a look at Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" fatherly protection is given in many ways, such as physical and financial protection.  Both pieces are told from the child's standpoint, Hayden's grateful, and Clifton's spiteful. In contrast, the opposing circumstances allow for the reader to understand how impactful a father's involvement is in child development.  

Sigmund Freud was made famous by his revolutionary ideas, and work on early life development. His basis was Psychoanalysis, and he believed that personality development could be traced back to steps taken in early childhood. Psychosexual Development was the theory by which he believed people acquired their personalities. In essence, this theory stated that humans are driven by primary sexual instincts, which in accordance with other life factors such as experiences, forge the personalities people grow into.  A lot of the weight of this development was placed on how parents assisted their children in traversing through this journey, because obviously children cannot raise themselves. Freud's research proposes a way of understanding why the involvement of a father is so important in child development.

Fathers have the power to make or break their children; it all depends on how they choose to be a parent. A study from the Journal of Marriage and Family was done on 134 children over the first 10 years of their lives to assess the effects of father involvement, and they found conclusive data that showed father-child contact leading to more productive social and academic performance (Howard 468-476). Many similar studies have been done as research for the U.S Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, in attempt to understand what factors are most influential in child development. There's a reason people say its so tough to be a single parent, and its because a mother and father both serve specific roles in child development that cannot be easily replaced. In fact, when a single mother raises a child, they tend to develop more aggressively than they would have had the father been present (Osborne 1065-1083). This occurrence isn't necessarily the mother's fault; child development is simply designed to be carried out by two coexisting parents. The resources needed to raise a child also include a financial aspect. In today's economy it is already hard to make a living, and throwing a kid in the mix complicates things further. Footing the bill for a child is pressing enough for two parents, but to have just one supporting parent makes the task seem improbable. The U.S Census Bureau discovered that about 44% of children raised by single mothers are poor, compared to children in married-couple families at 12%. By that data, kids who grow up with absent fathers are almost four times as likely to be poor, or financially unstable. This handicaps a child's possibilities in life right from the start. 

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sunday's" draws on the perspective of a son reflecting on his childhood relationship with his father. Hayden's word choice is what allows the reader to decipher his intended message of gratitude and regret. The poem starts off with "Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold" which immediately hits the reader with so much (Hayden 327). The use of "too" invites the idea that the father gets up in this fashion everyday, even on Sunday.  Sunday, being a day of rest for most, is just another day for this father to provide for his family.  He gets up in the "blueblack cold" so he can get a fire started to provide warmth for the family. The colors blue and black are associated with cold and ice, which adds an emphasis on how cold it is. This routine act is something the father does out of unconditional love for his family. While he isn't verbally showing his affection, his physical acts and simple presence show he cares.  The importance of this affection to the son is very important, and can be interpreted in later lines. "No one ever thanked him." Shows the son's hindsight, being that his father never received the recognition he deserved (Hayden 327). Also, the shortness of this line gives a tone that sounds guilty, as if the son appreciated his father's care, but should have been more appreciative at the time. This regret intern surfaces with grateful admiration in the final lines "What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?" (Hayden 327). The son didn't understand how tough a job his father had, but finally with time he has come to appreciate all that his father did for the family. This realization embodies the healthy relationship, and respect, of this father and son. 

Unlike the beneficial fatherly relationship depicted in Hayden's poem, Lucille Clifton paints a poem filled with anger through the canvas that is "forgiving my father". The title would suggest the obvious theme of forgiveness, but delving into the meat of the poem reveals more anger and eventually relinquishment. Throughout the poem, a hostile tone is directed at the deceased father. Clifton taunts him by calling him "daddy" as a cute little girl might, but means it to be a sarcastic slap in the face (Clifton 330). Now with both of her parents dead, she blames her father's absence for her and her mother's financial debt, and general unhappiness. The emotional effect of not having her father around is one of the most prominent effects, aside from financial instability. Because of the absent father, Clifton identifies with her mother, and see's herself as a "good daughter" for staying with her mother (Clifton 330). Since she is good, he must be bad, and this continues to fuel her anger ever more. Time is a big idea in this poem, and as the poem creeps to a close, time is emphasized more and more. Clifton taunts her father yet again with names like "old lecher" "old pauper" to show how much time he has wasted, and how he is all out of time now that he is dead (Clifton 330). It is obvious that all this "time" has been spent brewing on her anger of an absent father, yet there is still no forgiveness like the title suggests. The daughter finally resolves to relinquish all care of the situation "what am I doing here collecting?" out of exhaustion (Clifton 330). After years of hope and waiting for her father, she finally accepts the unhappy situation because there's nothing she can do. 

It's sad to see how negatively impacted a child can be by their own father, but then the opposing side, the positive, is remarkable. Clifton and Hayden's stories take the reader into the mind of a child on either end of the fatherly involvement spectrum. The difference in views from the children to their parents is completely accredited to the upbringing. Raising a child isn't an easy task, nor does it happen overnight. It is crucial that both parents be a cohesive team rearing a child, even if they were to divorce, simply being around can impact the outcome of a child's life tenfold. 
