Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father”, both tell stories describing how their stern fathers’ lifestyles affects that of their own.  Throughout Hayden’s poem, he animates a typical Sunday morning with his stern and hostile father.  While in Clifton’s “forgiving my father”, an adolescent girl describes her inner thoughts about her unworthy father, and how she has forgiven him for the wrongs he has committed.  These two text relate through their unhealthy relationships with their fathers.   Growing up in a household with a brute of a father can very negatively affect the children.  These two poem show the day to day actions and emotions caused by living under the same roof as a low income father figure.  

In “Those Winter Sundays”, Hayden tells her father’s Sunday morning ritual, which involved waking up at the crack of dawn and starting the fire in the house.  This fire represents the little love that his father displays for the family, and with this little love that his father offered he was never thanked for this deed.  Hayden uses descriptive diction to vividly animate his father’s harsh physical appearance.  His father’s “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” (524).  This lets the reader assume that he has a low wage blue collar job that can barely sustain the needs of his family.  It has been said many times that “As parents, it is our responsibility to model the life we want our children to live” (Caprino), and if the example that a parent sets is one of distant love accompanied by hostility then they are not fulfilling their proper parental deeds.  Another point needed of recognition is the echo Hayden gives before alluding to his father’s work life associated with his family life.  “What did I know, what did I know” (524), Hayden writes as he draws emphasis to how much he actually knew about his father’s lifestyle, and what his father does for him and his family to provide.

On the other hand, in Clifton’s “forgiving my father” a young girl is cursed with living under the same roof as a sexual demanding, debt ridden, and emotionally abusive father.  Clifton goes to tell about how her father was a liar, and how living with him is difficult to bare.  However, hint the title, Clifton seems to come to a consensus with her father, “forgiving” him for his wrong doing.  Clifton also references how her father’s financial status affects her life personally.  She also mentions how he does not treat her mother adequately.  Clifton states with a sense of determination how “I wish you were rich so I could take it all and give the lady what she was due” (525).  With this the audience can see how Clifton’s petty father has given her a feeling of disappointment toward him to the point where she has to forgive him of his actions.

These two poems both involve low wage households ruled under an emotionally abusive father that shows little love to his family.  Both of the fathers from the poems have money issues that tie into their blankness toward their loved ones.  With all the details given, the one can assume that when living with someone who only provides you with the resources required to get by, which in this case is the money made by working a rigorous and low paying career, one can develop an emotion of disgust tied to that person.

Moreover, “Those Winter Sundays” and “forgiving my father” both have fathers that give to their families only money and home to sleep in.  Both poets share similar conflicts with their parent, since being in such a similar situation.  With these two poems the audience can link how low income families are more likely to face domestic tension within a household.  
