
Although they bear some minor similarities, the differences between “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “Forgiving my Father” by Lucille Clifton are pronounced. The similarities between the poems are minor, but the initial striking similarity is the focus on the father figure. One has a more general lack of appreciation were as the other seems almost hateful. The differences are vast beginning with the father from Lucille’s poem seeming useless and the father from Robert’s poem seems to be a silent provider. The narrator of Clifton’s poem seemed spiteful towards the father almost hateful, but the narrator of Hayden’s story seems almost aware or regretful of the father’s status as the provider. 

 The similarities begin almost as soon as they end but they are prevalent none the less. Both of these poems focus on a father figure and the surrounding features about them. In Hayden’s poem the father is unappreciated and that is made clear when it is stated “No one ever thanked him” (l. 5) There is a similar feeling of dis-appreciation displayed in Clifton’s poem displayed heavily through the statement “daddy daddy old lecher/ old liar. I wish you were rich so I could take it all.” (ll. 9-10) The levels of distaste towards the fathers of the narrators may differ, but there is a mutual lack of appreciation or even care. There is also a possibility that both of these fathers have passed and that these poems are the narrator’s condolences of sorts. The focus of both poems retains focus on the father figures and does not break away for any reason other than the instilment of background information. 

From there we can only transition into the differences as that is the abrupt ending of the subtle differences. An initial thing to note is that the tone of Clifton’s poem “forgiving my father” is anything but forgiving, and the tongue of the narrator lashes at the father like a sharp whip intricately aimed at his faults. She begins the story by stating “it is Friday. We have come / to pay the paying of the bills.”(ll. 1-2) and shortly after states “but today is payday, payday old man;” (l. 5) She speaks of her mother who faced an early grave and how her father did nothing for her. He is stated to be an “old lecher” (l. 9) and the narrator is spiteful at his lack of money and how that affected her mother. He is stated to be “the only son of a needy father, the father of a needy son;” (l. 12-13) and with that it further strikes at the fact that he may have given the mother all he had, but all he had was nothing and he is no better than an empty pocket. I believe the narrator may be spitefully visiting the grave of the father as the author asks themselves “what am I doing here collecting?” (l. 21) and further states he is buried next to the mother in debtors’ boxes. He may have even left debt to the narrator in his death leaving one final burden that is implied by the closing statement “no accounting will open them up.”( l. 23)

Inversely Hayden’s narrator may not have properly appreciated the father but the poem itself gives acclaim to the moral and principal of the man that is the father. Unlike Clifton’s poem that cracked at the father like a whip this poem is shorter but just as concise. Hayden begins with a stated fact that on “Sundays too my father got up early/ and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,” (ll. 1-2) and with that you are already given the image of a father who rises early 7 days a week even in the winter to care for his family.  The father after rising builds a fire “with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather” (ll. 3-4) and proceeds to tend to it. Despite this father’s waking up on his presumable day off to care for the family “No one ever thanked him.” (l. 5) The narrator spoke of waking up to hearing “the cold splintering, breaking.” (l. 6) which was coming from the fire the father created an tended. Being the caring loving father he is he would only call them once the rooms were already warmed so that they would not have to be cold. The narrator’s father must have his own dark side though because Hayden wrote “slowly I would rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of that house,” (ll. 8-9) but are these angers the fathers or are they of the people who reside with him? I partially can assume that the angers of the house are things that the father just avoids all together because the author is stated to speak “indifferently to him,” (l. 10) who not only built the fire and warmed the house but the narrator followed up by stating he “polished my good shoes as well.” (l. 12) This is a father who not only works a laborious job, and wakes up early every day to maintain a fire and warmth within his household, but also goes as far as to shine the shoes of his child to do anything and everything he can. The work the father does can almost be symbolic of the role of the provider who goes out in the harsh weather of the world and bears the cold to create a safe and warm environment for his own child. But with a dark almost sad tone this poem ends with the question “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (ll. 13-14) This ending leaves the sad undertone that he may have never shown his father the appreciation he deserves because he did not understand the grave feeling of the one sided love his father showed him. There is a terrible sense of regret as the narrator questions himself because he took for granted his father while he still had him. 

With sufficient analyzation of both poems it is already very innately clear the differences of the father figures within the poem. It is also a possibility that both of these fathers had died before the poems were written and these poems are like a final goodbye. It is stated in Dr. Jennifer Eastin’s study on the impact of absent father-figures that “in the case of divorce or death, a more serious impact has been found on the child’s emotional development” (Horn; Steinberg). The relevance of that statement is that both of these narrator’s fathers have probably passed and that would greatly explain the tone of both of them. Clifton’s poem was spiteful almost hateful to a man who lived his life doing nothing for them and died doing the same. In a near mirrored opposite Hayden’s poem speaks of the loving caring father who lived his life without appreciation and then the narrator questions his own knowledge of “love’s austere” (l. 13) which his father must have experienced plenty of before his passing. In Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg’s article on maintaining strong parent-child bonds “Many parents have learned how to become increasingly efficient in balancing work and home schedules.”(Ginsburg) and the father of Hayden’s poem displays this perfectly. His role is not only to work 5 days a week to care for his children, but he extends that to 7 days a week to make his child’s life better all around. The father of Clifton’s poem may have done the exact opposite as even at the grave the narrator asks themselves “what am I doing here collecting?” (l. 21) as to say why are they even giving condolences to this man who provided for them in no way. The obvious differences between the fathers are vast having Hayden’s father be a man who seemed to cause the halcyon days to flow freely, and the inverse father of Clifton’s novel being the black cloud haunting him even after his passing. 

Despite the minor similarities displayed through the lack of affection displayed to the father and the strong possibility that they have both passed, there are many differences between the poems such as the tone of the narrators and the morals of the fathers. Clifton’s poem spoke a cold man who spent his life selfishly caring for only himself. He was “the only son of a needy father, the father of a needy son;” (ll. 12-13) and clearly lived his life as such doing nothing for the narrator or the mother up until his death bed. The father of Hayden’s novel was a polar opposite being a father who slaved his 7 day weeks to fight the cold weather of the world to provide a warm housing environment for his children to live in despite the narrator’s lack of appreciation. The narrator in the end struck us with a very grave sadness displayed by his repeated question “What did I know, what did I know” (l. 13) representing his regret of the indifference he showed his own father while he had him. The poems were both clearly written in condolence to the fathers, but they differed in the value of one father to the next having a loving silent provider as well as a useless selfish man who left them. 
