As time goes on and people mature, they may come to realizations that they would not have, had they not grown up in the way that they had.  This theme is prevalent in both Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” and Lucille Clifton’s “Forgiving my Father”.  Throughout both of these shot poems, both Hayden and Clifton recall their fathers and both come to realize something that they would not have a long time ago.  However, if they had not grown up the way they had, they would not have had these realizations.  When put together, these poems exemplify why people should cherish the people in their lives, and in some cases forgive those that are close to them, while they are still around to be cherished or forgiven.  

In “Those Winter Sundays”, it is clear that Hayden’s father did a lot for him and that his father loved him very much.  Right from the beginning, the poem starts off with the line “Sundays too my father got up early” (1).  Although this line may seem insignificant, it sets the stage for the rest of the poem.  Hayden’s use of the word “too” signifies that his father wakes up early everyday, even on Sundays, which are supposed to be the day of rest.  The reason that Hayden’s father would wake up early on Sundays was to make a fire to warm the house and to polish Hayden’s good shoes.  

Hayden uses alliteration to make the readers sense what his father went through to give him a better life.  The us of alliteration to draw attention to the sacrifices Hayden’s father made is apparent in within the first few lines:

And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold

and with his cracked hands that ached 

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. (2-5)

Hayden uses words such as cold, cracked, and ached “evoke the harshness of the speaker’s father’s life” (Landau).  This harshness and sacrifice is further exaggerated through the description of the father’s hands as being cracked and in pain.  Even though his father was tired from when he worked on the weekdays, he would still go out of his was to wake up early on the day of rest to make sure the house was warm when Hayden got up.  

The reader gets a much different view of a father in Lucille Clifton’s poem “Forgiving my Father”.  Within the first couple of lines, it becomes clear to the reader that Clifton is not fond of her father: “all week you have stood in my dreams / like a ghost, asking for more time” (3-4).  The word ghost carries with it a negative connotation, making the readers begin to see that Clifton and her father were not close.  The word ghost also implies that her father is dead and, instead of telling him all of the things she is writing about, she is more thinking out loud upon reminiscing.  The hostility between Clifton and her father continues with how she calls him names: 

There will 

Never be time enough daddy daddy old lecher 

Old liar.  I wish you were rich so I could take it all

And give the lady what she was due (8-11).

Not only does Clifton continue her hostility towards her father by calling him a lecher and a liar, but she outwardly admits to taking her mother’s side in the disputes that he and her mother used to have.  Even though these lines seem to be rooted in anger towards her father, Clifton does call her father “daddy”.  The use of the word daddy has a more affectionate tone than the word father or even dad.  The usage of the word daddy is significant because while she is scolding her father, she is calling him by a name that suggests she might still have some affection towards him.  This theme develops through the end of the poem when Clifton has her realization.

As Clifton continues to recall her father and the many disputes he and her mother had, she begins to forgive him.  The first sign of forgiveness is when she begins to realize that her father’s actions and irresponsibility might not have been entirely his fault:

But you were the only son of a needy father,

the father of a needy son;

you gave her all you had

which was nothing.  You have already given her 

all you had. (12-16)

This passage marks Clifton’s realization that it might not be entirely her father’s fault that her childhood was filled with disputes over money, it was partially due to have he, himself was raised.  She believes that he was raised in a household similar to the household he created for her, therefore, he did not know any better.  She comes to a sense of forgiveness with her father, but it is too late to tell him because he is dead.  

By the end of  “Those Winter Sundays”, it is clear that Hayden has come to a realization that he had not had before.  The beginning of this realization that Hayden begins to have is first apparent at the end of the fifth line: “No one ever thanked him” (5).  This line comes directly after Hayden describes his father’s hands as being cracked and aching from the work he had been doing during the weekdays, signifying some sort of remorse.  This line also seems to come out of nowhere and in a sense “stands out as if it were alone, a separate thought, an afterthought” (Landau) when Hayden begins to look back on his childhood and relationship with his father.  This makes this line stand out against the others and draws the reader’s attention to the idea that Hayden regrets not being more thankful for what his father did for him as a child.  This theme comes back at the end of the poem: 

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know 

of love’s austere and lonely offences (10-14)

Hayden brings back the theme of regret initially by saying tat he had spoken indifferently to his father who had gotten up early to warm the house and even polished his shoes.  This references line five when Hayden says that no one had ever thanked his father.  Hayden also repeats the phrase “what did I know”.  This repetition “allows the reader to acknowledge the terrible sense of sadness and regret the speaker now feels” (Landau).  Hayden now realizes that he should’ve been more appreciative for all that his father had done for him, because even the smallest of acts were out of love.

Both “Those Winter Sundays” and “Forgiving my Father” show the realizations that come with maturation.  Both Clifton comes to realize that her father’s actions might not have been entirely his fault and comes to forgive him, even though it is too late to tell him because he is dead.  Hayden comes to realize that he should have been more appreciative of his father and all that he did for him growing up.  It is unclear is Hayden’s father is dead or alive in his poem, but when put together, these poems teach the reader that they should cherish the people in their lives while they’re still around—if they do not, it will be too late and they will not be able to tell. 

