My Father's Love Letters

“Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Recalls Wrigley Field” by Beth Ann Fennelly (2009)

This poem tells a fraught story of a young speaker’s trip to Chicago’s Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play baseball. The speaker “licked Good Humor” (Line 5) ice cream bars while the father drank beer, one in each hand. Old enough to be aware of “the hairy necks of the men in front” (Line 13) of her, she ignores her mother’s warning to “Be careful” (Line 8, repeated in Line 16) for, “why should I be full of care / with his thick arm circling my shoulders” (Lines 17-18). Ultimately, this poem, like Komunyakaa’s, tells the story of a potentially fraught relationship between a child and a father, made especially complicated by the mother’s absence in the moment presented in the poem.

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke (1942)

Like “My Father’s Love Letters,” Roethke’s poem describes an intimate moment between a speaker and his father when Roethke’s speaker dances with his father. The pair “romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf” (Lines 5-6). As in Komunyakaa’s poem, however, all is not well: “My mother’s countenance / Could not unfrown itself” (Lines 7-8). Though relationships amongst the family members are seemingly intact, “My Papa’s Waltz” offers subtle references to the violence that underpins the speaker’s family.

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden (1966)

“Those Winter Sundays” tells the story of a father’s devotion to his family. Though “No one ever thanked him” (Line 5), the father “got up early” (Line 1) even on Sundays to prepare the fire that would warm the household. Even more, the speaker’s father “polished my good shoes as well” (Line 12). Unlike the father in Komunyakaa’s poem, this one is worthy of appreciation that he does not receive at the time. In hindsight, Hayden’s speaker admits, “what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Lines 13-14).