Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" and Lucille Clifton's "Forgiving my Father" portray a similar father to child relationship. However, the two relationships are very different. In "Those Winter Sundays", a son is looking back on his childhood and the sacrifices his father made for him and his family, realizing that he should have been more appreciative and wishes he still had the opportunity to thank him. In "Forgiving my Father", a daughter reflects on her childhood, just like "Those Winter Sundays". However, unlike the Son in first poem, she didn't have much good to say about her Father. Even so, she did mention that the Father had an excuse and could understand why her Father did what he did. Overall, even though both stories portray a child who has grown up looking back at their father's actions, their reaction to memories of their fathers are very different and I think this has to do with a variety of reasons, such as how they perceived their father, what their father did, and their reaction also defines them as different people and their ability to rationalize differently as an adult than as a kid.  

In "Forgiving me Father", a daughter parents seem to both be deceased, is recollecting back on the dreams she has been having about her parents arguing over money. "all week you have stood in my dreams, like a ghost, asking for more time" (3-4) These dreams are haunting her implying that her parents might have been emotionally abusive. Then She goes on to call her Father an "old Liar" (10), thus revealing that she was on her mother's side whenever they argued and didn't trust her father. On the Other hand, the boy in "Those Winter Sunday" didn't so much as not trust his Father, but just didn't understand him. He didn't realize that even though, his Father might not have been there emotionally for him or spent too much time with him, the way in which his Father showed love for his son was by making sure all his needs were taken care of. He even went out of his way on Sundays, his one day off, to get out of bed in the freezing cold winters and make sure they had heat. And the son, realizing that his Father loved him so much even though he didn't realize it at the time, wishes he could go back in time to appreciate all his Father did for him. "What did I know, what did I know, of love's austere and lonely offices?"(13-14) The difference here is the emotion that the speaker is feeling toward their father. In "Forgiving My Father", the speaker talks about her Father in a disappointed and almost angry tone. She feels as though her Father has wronged her. Which she very might as well be correct in blaming it all on the father. However, she does say that "you gave her all you had, which was nothing. you have already given her, all you had." (14-15) This sentence suggests that even though the father had nothing to give to his family, he wasn't holding anything back. He just was unable to get money. I almost pity the Father in this story. He is living in poverty. He is probably working insane amounts of hours in a crowded factory somewhere, and yet, when he gets home, he has nothing to give to his family. This kind of lifestyle would probably make anyone upset, especially if you loved and wanted to take care of your family. So unless the father has been spending all his money on himself, which is a possibility, I feel as though all this blame that has been placed on the father might misguided. But this daughter only ends up forgiving her father because she felt it pointless to continue to hold a grudge. The speaker in "Those Winter Sundays" not only forgives his Father, but also regrets that he is not able to ask for his Father's forgiveness. He is not angry as his father. On the contrary, he is saddened by the fact that he never appreciated all the hard work that his Father did for him. 

In both stories, the father did something wrong, which leads the speakers to respond later on, when reflecting on their childhood. In "Those Winter Sundays" the Father, although he loved his children, was bad at expressing that love. He expressed his love, in the only way he knew how. He just worked hard to take care of them. He made sure they had heat. Went to work every week, to put a roof over their heads and made sure they had enough to eat. However, none of the children realized how much their father loved them, because they didn't realize how hard he worked until they were older. The children were scared of "the chronic angers of that house." When I think of "Chronic Angers" of a house, I imagine that the parents were very strict and used disciplinary action. Which is another form of love that usually goes unnoticed until you're an adult. What the Father did wrong, was that he never became personal with his son. He was there to discipline and provide them with necessities, but that was it. In "Forgiving My Father", the Father was both unable to provide for his family and emotionally abusive. His daughter is still haunted by the memories of her father and mother fighting over finances. One could make the argument that her father should have worked harder, but we don't know much about the context, or where he was working. As far as we know he could just not able to hold a job and was unemployed most of the time. But that's just making a rash assumption. The reason why, the father is unable to provide for his family is unknown. But based on the fact that his daughter, was on his mothers' side, we can assume that the excuses he was giving weren't very good. The only excuse that his daughter gave for his father of why he was like that, was because that's the way he grew up. No one ever gives the father the benefit of the doubt, or is on his side. The only reason his daughter forgave him was because, she thought it was pointless to hold a grudge. 

Overall these two poems give two different emotional responses of the readers of memories of their fathers. Two different fathers and 2 different children. In "Those winter Sundays", the speaker realized he was at fault and wished he could thank his father and in "Forgiving my Father", the reader, blames her father for everything, but forgives him out, because it would be useless to hold a grudge. 

