
Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father” are both poems told to describe a child’s relationship with their fathers. They are comparable by many ways, but also differ. Hayden’s poem is about family and memory, which is depicted through the intense diction and metaphors, to show a particular relationship with a father and a son. This relationship was based off of appreciation and affection. Clifton’s poem depicts a broken relationship between a father and a daughter. This piece shows how complex financial awareness. The main idea of this poem is to show that the father “owed” his daughter and wife. In both poems, “Those Winter Sundays” and “forgiving my father”, the main focus is the relationship with a child and their father. They both show feelings and use intense diction in order to do that. 

Similarities include things like diction, family, and even structure. The diction in both short poems are alike because they use intense diction to describe the feelings of the children. In “Those Winter Sundays”, the author, Robert Hayden, uses the weather to describe the attitude, being that the son or daughter feels appreciation towards her father. The child expresses empathy through the diction. Hayden used phrases like “blueblack cold”, “banked fire blaze”, “cold splintering, breaking”, and “love’s austere.” These words and phrases that are used show that the author meant to give off an intense vibe towards their relationship. Clifton also uses intense diction in “forgiving my father”. The strong diction in this poem displays the harsh feelings that the daughter had towards her father. She started off by calling him an “old lecher”, then continues to say he is an “old liar”, and lastly she said “daddy old pauper old prisoner”. Just analyzing the diction, you can tell that she doesn’t have the best relationship with her father. The relationship was broken because he didn’t provide enough for his daughter or wife. After he dies, she realizes that nothing good will come out of resenting him, so she starts to forgive him for all his wrong doings and not being able to provide enough for his family. The structure is similar because they are both short poems. They are easy to follow along and understand after reading it slowly and carefully. 

There were also many differences that were noticed. Differences being that the children had very different attitudes towards their fathers. In “forgiving my father,” the attitude is more of a resentful but forgiving. The shift in attitude is noticed when at first she explained that she wishes that he was rich just so that she can take it all and give it to her mother, then to being more accepting by saying “what am i doing here collecting?”. While, in “Those Winter Sundays,” it came off as more empathetic and appreciative. The author used phrases like, “sundays too my father got up early”, “cracked hands that ached”, “No one ever thanked him”, and “speaking indifferently to him”. These phrases show that he or she is sympathetic towards his or her father for all that he does for him family. The main difference between these two poems is the attitude that is portrayed toward their fathers. In Clifton’s poem, the attitude is negative, more of a sympathetic towards the daughter. In Hayden’s poem, there is more of a positive connotation portrayed through some of the negativity. 

These two poems are alike and different in many ways but both relate to relationships with their family, one being good and one being bad. There are structural differences, but they are mostly alike being that they are both short poems. They are very much alike through the intense diction used that portray their attitudes. They are different because their relationships with their fathers are very much complicated but opposite of each other. 