Aim: How do we analyze poems to
focus on the controlling idea?
Do Now: Take out yesterday’s poems.
1. What idea does the poem, “Those Winter
Sundays,” present about fathers?
2. From what point of view is the poem written?
3. How would the feelings of the poem change if
“winter” were changed to another season?
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
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 offices?
My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on
like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans
Slid from
the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step
you missed My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a
palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.
Multiple Choice
1. Which pairs of words describe the sounds of the
4. In line 7, the word "countenance" most likely means
fire?
a. expression
a. banked/blaze
b. Arms
b. splintering/breaking
c. Laughter
c. blueblack/cold
d. posture
d. austere/lonely
5. Among the following lines from the poem, choose
2. The phrase “lonely offices,” as it is used in ine 14,
the one that contains a SIMILE.
means
a. "We romped until the pans”
a. Unloved parent.
b. "The hand that held my wrist”
b. empty hearts.
c. "But I hung on like death”
c. silent rooms.
d. "With a palm caked hard by dirt”
d. unappreciated duties.
6. From the speaker's words, we can tell that the
3. When you consider the poem as a whole, the theme father is most likely
that emerges is
a. a teacher
Turn each correct multiple
a. understanding.
b. Unemployed
choice answer into a
b. fear.
c. a farmer
complete sentence.
c. resentment.
d. a doctor
d. pity.
Topic: Fathers
• What are some possible controlling ideas?
• What idea do the two poems convey about
fathers?
– Can you use any of the adjectives we put on the
board yesterday about fathers?