From starting a fire in the morning, to giving life advice, to making sacrifices for their children, parents manifest their love in numerous, tangible and intangible ways. These subtle indications of affection are the driving forces behind two poems written with the same theme: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. In the two poems, the authors reveal the different ways in which parents show love for their children through point of view, imagery, and symbolism; however each poem deals with a different method of demonstrating their kindness.
The two poems use different points of view to convey their similar messages to the reader. While both use first person point of view, “Mother to Son” is told from …show more content…
The entirety of “Mother to Son” is a symbol, as the whole plot of the speaker’s words hinge upon the “crystal stair” analogy, symbolic of a perfect life. She says her staircase is full of “splinters” (line 4) and “tacks” (line 3). These sharp, often painful objects are symbolic of hardships she has faced and the difficulties she must overcome to reach the top, her way of telling her son he needs to fight through the pain to be successful and happy. Another symbol Hughes’ speaker uses is,“And sometimes goin’ in the dark/where there ain't been no light” (lines 12-13), also a juxtaposition of light and dark. Two contrasting images of light and dark are symbols of occasionally having bad times, making life seem as though it has never been good, and seems like it will never get better. But she is sure to tell him that “I’se still still climbin', / And life for me ain't been no crystal stair” (line 20), to reassure him it will be okay, no matter the circumstances. Everything she tells him has a deeper meaning for him to understand, for him to be prepared for life. Conversely, Hayden’s speaker uses symbols not to give a lesson, but to express appreciation for the overlooked, silent love his father provided. Winter, the season the poem takes place in, is a symbol of the coldness he showed toward his father as a young boy. Looking back, he realizes the error in his ways, and this developing feeling of gratitude for the affection shown is symbolized when his dad had “driven out the cold” (line 11) of his heart, now filled with thankfulness, with the fire of his love. A similar aspect to the symbolism of both is the form: each poem’s form is symbolic of their own message. In “Those Winter Sundays,” the content is like that of a sonnet, but lacks the form of one. Therefore, like the love of his father, the form of a sonnet goes unrecognized until further