Comparing Vonnegut's Those Winter Sundays, And Greasy Lake

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Ray Bradbury, although both being authors of science fiction, have contrastive styles of writing. Bradbury's short story "The Pedestrian," follows a character named Leonard Mead through a quiet town, but as one reads on there is a realization of why the town is so quiet; government control. In Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron," there is an element of intrigue and excitement due to the individual characters and their unique handicaps. These handicaps being there because of government control. Vonnegut and Bradbury are homologous, having a similar vision of the future. That vision ultimately depicting a bureaucratic dystopia. In "Harrison Bergeron," Vonnegut's vision of a bureaucratic dystopia is one where everyone

In “Those Winter Sundays,” the father shows his love for his family by keeping the house warm, and the shoes polished. No one in his house ever thanked him for it, but that was not what the father wanted. His labors were out of love, not the expectation of thanks. The speaker recounts the fact that he would often speak “indifferently to him” (Line 10). Eventually, the speaker understands that this was how his father showed his love; “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Lines 13-14). Once the speaker realizes this, a sense of guilt is conveyed by the speaker who did not appreciate his father’s actions.

The two poems I have chosen to analyze are Daystar by Rita Dove and Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden.

The father did not acquire cracked hands from work in the cold, but rather “labor in the weekday weather” (line 4). Labor today one would associate with farming, working in a factory; very hard physical ‘work’, making the role of the father in this case seem all the more laborious. The first stanza ends with “No one ever thanked him” (line 5) which gives the poem a brief pause, leading the reader to assume that perhaps his father has passed away recently. The love shown by the speaker’s father is now recognized, but it is too late to give thanks. When the speaker wakes and his father calls him downstairs, he dresses slowly for he fears the “chronic angers of that house” (line 9). ‘Chronis angers,’ the reason for the boy’s hesitation to dress and go downstairs, illustrates the extreme amount of tension that must have been present in the house. The speaker mentions talking indifferently to his father, followed by “who had driven out the cold” (line 11) as though now he recognizes that he had never treated his father as a loving one even though he got up every morning to do this great chore for his family. The poem ends with the question “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lovely offices?” (line 14) admitting the speakers adolescent ignorance and obvious answer of nothing. The way the author chose and arranged these words completely defines the story he is trying to tell and the point he is trying to make.

In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, is about a man looking back on his childhood experience, and relationship with his father. The father of this man was the type of person to do arduous labor, and be unacknowledged for it. Although the father deserved to not be acknowledged because he only went through this labor for his obligation and expectations to do so, not out of love, compassion, nor alacrity of any kind. He was an austere, anodyne, and abusive father but, his son still believes he could have been a better son by behaving more appropriately, and giving him at least a time where someone recognized and acknowledged his efforts through gratitude. The son thought that if he did so, then things between them may have been better. Through the wording, consonance, strong words, and meaning in the poem “Those Winter Days” exemplify the poor relationship between father and son, being bethought by his son as a man leading to his remorse that he could’ve been on better terms with his father.

The speaker of “Those Winter Sunday” described the hard labor of his father in which no one appreciate, but he is still able to take care of his family. The speaker used imagery, alliteration, and word choice to recalls the unconditional love his father shows him when he was a child.

The poems “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Hopkins and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden both represent a major point in life. In “Spring and Fall” a young girl begins to notice death and feel the since of mortality. While in “Those Winter Sundays” a young boy does not realize his father’s love until he is grown up. Both Poems show how as a child grows up he will look a life differently.

This essay will consist of four grueling paragraphs comparing and contrasting "Snow" by David Berman with a personal version of that poem. The second paragraph will compare the two versions of the poems. While the third paragraph will contrast the versions.The last paragraph will sum up the essay. I will compare all aspects of these versions of the poem. I will compare and contrast the characters, setting, plot and many more characteristics. To conclude I will also talk about parts I liked and did not like.

One is to think of war as one of the most honorable and noble services that a man can attend to for his country, it is seen as one of the most heroic ways to die for the best cause. The idea of this is stripped down and made a complete mockery of throughout both of Wilfred Owen’s poems “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. Through his use of quickly shifting tones, horrific descriptive and emotive language and paradoxical metaphors, Owen contradicts the use of war and amount of glamour given towards the idea of it.

The poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and “Who’s for the Game?” by Jessie Pope are direct antitheses of each other, such that their views about war, the chosen literary schemes, and the effects on the readers are exact opposites in each view. “Who’s for the Game?” is a strong pro-war poem with a simplistic rhyme scheme, basic meaning, shallow imagery, and is intended to provoke and challenge young men into joining the war. Conversely, “Dulce et Decorum Est” is an anti-war poem with a relatively more complicated rhyme scheme, complex meaning, deep imagery, and is intended to discourage those who write such propaganda as “Who’s for the Game?”.

In the poem Those Winter Sundays describes a man recollecting a time in his childhood about his father. Father can play an important role in a child's life. In the first stanza the author acknowledges the sacrifice his father made for by waking up earlier. Waking up early on the weekend may show a great sacrifice in many people's eyes. The imagery uses as the author describes his fathers hands as "cracked hands that ached" showing the apparition of his fathers hard work for the family. The son is showing pride in this line by stating "no one ever thank himed". Did the father asked to be thanked? The authors describes the authority his father had over the household by stating "fearing the chronic angers of that house". Speaking as a child would

In “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, I believe that the metaphorical “gift” that the father bestows on his son is love. This is what the speaker of the poem realizes many years later, which can be told by the line “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” When the speaker was a child, his view of love was not fully complete. In turn, he did not understand that by waking up early and making a fire to warm the house, his father was showing love and affection to the child. It can be seen that he did not know that his fathers was displaying affection by the lines, “and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,” and “Speaking indifferently to him.”

In the first stanza of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, the reader is instantly drawn in with “Bent double”. This gives the poem a feeling of immediacy which is then followed up by a detailed description of what is to come. “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs/ Men marched asleep/ Many had lost their boots but limped on.” The reader is yet again, drawn into the graphic scene of war. The alliteration “Knock-kneed” emphasises the battle weariness of the soldiers and intensifies the way they depicted war. Owen creates rhythm throughout the stanza by littering the poem with pauses. He uses this technique in the line “All went blind; Drunk with fatigue; death even to the hoots Of tired”. Owen makes the scene more vivid by bringing in his own involvement to war with “we cursed through the sludge”, he uses the term “sludge” to help capture the agony which was being experienced by the soldiers.

The author choosing “Sundays” to begin his essay is refer to religion, particularly Christianity. It brings up images of a resurrected son, sacrificed by his own father. The speaker describes his painful yet pleasant memories of Sunday mornings with his father. He talks about his father in a loving manner, he goes as far as saying “from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.”which describes how underappreciated his father was. The stanza is then punctuated with a terse sentence describing a sore silence “No one thanked him,” which literally stops the reader's speech in a recitation. Woken by the very sounds associated with his father, in the next stanza the speaker hears “cold, splintering, breaking”.

This poem is called dulce et decorum est and is written by Wilfred Owen the poem is about the horrors of war. In stanza one Owen gets his message across about the war and the soldiers physical condition through his use of similes ,metaphors assonance and ambiguity. One example of ambiguity is his description of the “haunting flares” the first meaning is referring to the sound of the flare the other meaning is that the soldiers are haunted by what they have seen in the war.the second quote is “men marched asleep” which is getting the point across that the soldiers are absolutely shattered.it is clear to the reader that war is a draining experience for the soldiers. In stanza 2 Owen gets his message about the horrors of a gas attack across with a good use of ambiguity.my first quote is “and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime”this means that a solder did not get his gas mask on in time and he is now floundering around in pain.the second quote is “i saw him drowning”this is another example of ambiguity, the first meaning is that he looks like he is drowning and the second meaning is that he is actually drowning because the gas makes the lungs bleed so he drowns in blood.it is clear to the reader that gas attacks and all of war is a horrific experience]