

Both Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father” tell the story of two complex, struggling, working families. Both Hayden and Clifton grew up in African American, urban neighborhoods and used poetry to illustrate their childhood. Both poets use of diction allow the reader to recognize how both families had to work hard in order to survive. Both poems describe a poor working family that trouble with money as well as their relations with their fathers. Hayden writes his poem with an apologetic tone for not realizing how hard his father worked. Clifton’s poem on the other hand explains why she is trying to forgive her father. Both Hayden and Clifton’s poems focus on the difficulty of growing up in poverty and the importance of forgiveness. 

Robert Hayden begins his poem by describing how hard his father worked, no matter the circumstances. He tells of his father’s relentless working, “Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (1-2). The reader can tell that the son admires his father for his hard work but feels sympathy for the cold conditions and the fact that his father is working on the day of rest. Hayden then goes on to describe the father, “then with cracked hands and ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fire blaze” (3-5). In this phrase the reader can visualize how over worked and tired the father really is. Even though the father’s body is worn down from a long week of working he still continues to get up and make a fire so his son is warm. In the next line of the poem, the reader can sense the son’s guilt for not recognizing his father’s tireless work, “No one ever thanked him” (5). This last phrase of the clause is important because the son is finally recognizing how hard his father worked just to make sure that he was comfortable. He feels a sense of guilt and humiliation for never thinking of all his father had done and hopes his father can forgive him. Hayden then goes on to explain how the son wakes up to the warmth from his father and gets ready for a day of work but in the last clause of the poem Hayden describes his actions towards his father, “Speaking indifferently to him, / who had driven out the cold / and polished my good shoes as well” (10-12). In this phrase the author uses a tone of guilt for treating his father the way he did but also thankfulness.  Although he did not realize all that his father did for him when he was young he now understands his father’s sacrifices and asks for forgiveness. 

Clifton’s poem on the other hand explains why she is trying to forgive her father for what he has done. In the first line of the poem Clifton addresses her family’s small income, “it is Friday. we have come / to the paying of the bills” (1-2). She puts this in the beginning of the poem so that the reader is immediately familiar with their poverty. She goes on to explain how her father continuously seeks more time to pay the bills but now they are out of time, “there is no more time for you. There will / never be time enough daddy daddy old lecher/ old liar” (8-10).  In this clause the reader gets a glimpse into how the daughter really feels about her father. Clifton addresses her dad as ‘daddy’ which gives the impression that she and her father have a close relationship, but in the same phrase she uses negative words like ‘lecher’ and ‘liar’ to describe his as well. This choice of words tells the reader that she does not think highly of her father and in the next clause she continues to express her criticism, “I wish you were rich so I could take it all / and give the lady what she was due” (10-11). In this phrase the ‘lady’ the daughter addresses is her dead mother whom she wishes her father had given more too.  The daughter feels so strongly about wanting to give her mother what she deserves that she says she would rob her father of all he has. The reader can see the harsh comparison between her relationship with her dead mother and her father. Although she has been criticizing her father for the entirety of the poem, in the next line she begins to defend his actions and try to understand, “you gave her all you had / which was nothing. You have already given her / all you had” (14-16). The daughter realizes that her father had tried to give her mother what she deserved, he just couldn’t give her enough.  She tries to forgive her father for the way he treated her and her mother by sympathizing with him that he didn’t have anything to give them in the first place. At this point of the poem the daughter switches from blaming her father to blaming his shortcoming, “you are the pocket that was going to open / and come up empty any Friday” (17-18). She understands that he is trying to provide for her but has come to terms that he will never be good enough. Clifton writes the poem about the father daughter relationship as the daughter is beginning to realize why she should forgive her father. The reader is able to see each emotion the daughter feels as she comes to understand her father and why he has done what he has done. 

Both poems are centered around a father and his relationship with either a daughter or son. In Hayden’s poem the son’s relationship with his father is much different than the father, daughter relationship in Clifton’s poem. The son in Hayden’s poem asks for forgiveness for his attitude and for never saying thank you after recognizing all of his father’s hard work. The son in the poem realizes that his father worked hard and gave everything he had to ensure that he was warm and had a comfortable life. The daughter in Clifton’s poem on the other hand is trying to forgive her father for not providing enough for her and her mother. The daughter thinks her father is evil and did not work or give enough to the family. Even though one poem is from the viewpoint of a daughter and the other from a son, both struggle to relate to their father. 

As well as the hard relationship that both subjects in the two poems have with their father, they also share a common battle with poverty. Hayden’s poem clearly states how his family struggled with income due to the amount of days his father had to work. The father worked all days of the week regardless of how tired and sore he was. While in Clifton’s poem the author mentions the difficulty of paying bills. The father in this poem was never ready or had enough money to pay the bills that continued to come. 

Both authors have a theme of poverty and tough father relations due to their own childhood. Lucille Clifton grew up in New York where her father worked for the steel mills (Alexander). Her childhood with a working father is the inspiration behind the daughter in her own poem. Similarly, Robert Hayden “grew up in a Detroit ghetto” with his foster parents. Hayden’s family on the other hand had many more issues than just poverty, “The Hayden’s' perpetually contentious marriage…made for a traumatic childhood. Witnessing fights and suffering beatings, Hayden lived in a house fraught with 'chronic angers' whose effects would stay with the poet throughout his adulthood” (Sanders). Both of the authors childhoods affected their poetry and influenced the main themes of poverty and poor family relations seen in both these poems. 

In conclusion, both Hayden and Clifton’s poem give insight into two similar yet different family’s. Both families struggle with money and have poor relations with their father. However Hayden writes his poem asking the father for forgiveness while Clifton writes her poem trying to forgive her father. 
