Throughout a young person's life, a father figure is central to the maturity and adulthood a young man needs to become a wise and good man mind. In both poems, “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Dad's Waltz,” the authors recall a past event that happened to them in their life. These events are imprinted vividly in their minds and they both have to deal with their fathers. “Those Winter Sundays”, by Robert Hayden, talks about a memory he wished wasn't real; a sense of regret in this poem is the main feeling we readers feel. In “My Papa's Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, we see a completely different situation. In this past memory, the poet's child self is full of fear and terror and we can see that this situation empowers the poet of the past. Between the two poets, they both don't deserve the situation they find themselves in. Instead, if they had somehow 'switched' childhood, these poems would not have been written, and every poet would be better off. " by Robert Hayden, talks about his childhood and how his father did everything to please his son and others, but never showed any gratitude or appreciation. Now, as an adult, the poet begins to feel guilty and unhappy for not never having let his father know that he was a good man. The poem begins by telling us the situations in which the poet's father set out to do something for others, yet no one ever thanked him, he was not recognized on Sundays he would get up early and dress in the blue-black cold, then, with his hands chapped and sore from the toil of weekday weather, he would light the fires. No one ever thanked him (Hayden 1-5)No one ever thanked his father, including himself himself, and remorse and remorse devour the poet... middle of paper... a poem by his father would never have been written written Since he didn't care about his father as a young man, he wouldn't have cared about the "switched" drunken father, so he wouldn't be affected much. As for the poet of “My Papa's Waltz”, he deserves a father like the one in “Those Winter Sundays”. Since the poet was such a loving and caring child, having a loving and caring father would have been perfect not only for the poet, but also for the father. If this poet had had his father "switched", he would not have written a poem like this. He would have had a much happier childhood because having a caring, loving father it seemed to me, from the poem, that this was the only thing the child wanted. Works Cited Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.