Making Sense Of Hardships

In both poems, “Facing It” by Yusef Komuhykaa and “My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, there are two men looking back on hardships that they have made it through in their life. Although both hardships are completely different, the men in both poems had to work through them and in the long run their hardships made them stronger men. Through the grieving of two grown me in both poems, it is apparent how hard it is to forget hardships in your past because they will always cause emotional pain.

The speakers in both poems reveal their hardships from their past. The speaker in “Facing It” is a Veteran of the Vietnam War. He is a man who is emotional about the Memorial because of what it represents and how he is connected with it. He was in the war and knew people on the memorial so that’s why he got emotional about it. “I said I wouldn’t, Damnit: No tears” (Komuhykaa 713). The speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” is a man reminiscing about his youth when he was abused by his father. “You beat time on my head” (Roethke 501). This quote shows that he was abused. Both speakers are reminiscing about their pasts and become emotional about it.

Both speakers are concerned about different things. The speaker in “Facing It” is concerned about his fellow soldier, Andrew Johnson, who is dead. He sees his name on the wall and becomes emotional about it; “I touch the name Andrew Johnson” (Komuhykaa 714). The speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” is concerned about being abused by his drunken father. “The whiskey on your breath…You beat time on my head” (Roethke 501). He also seems to be concerned about his mothers countenance. Both speakers concerns deal with other people. They are not just concerned with problems that are only about them, their problems involve other people that they have a general concern for.

In both poems, “Facing It” and “My Papa’s Waltz” the speakers deal with their concerns by reminiscing about the hardships and simply deal with the emotional pain. “I see the booby traps white flash” (Komuhykaa 714). The speaker in “Facing It” thinks about thinks, such as the booby trap, that happened in the war. The speaker in “My Papa’s Waltz” thinks about how he just took the beating when he was a child. “But I hung on like death…Still clinging to you shirt” (Roethke 501). The speaker states how when his father would waltz him to bed he would still be clinging to his shirt, but in a sense it’s stating how he still is clinging to his shirt. He still is emotionally attached to his father and still loves him. He wants to make sense of why his father beat him like he did. It seems like the speaker knew the beating was coming every night because he states that his father would waltz him off to bed, like it was nothing. The beating the speaker got when he was a child probably happened often. Both speakers want to make sense of their hardships and deal with their concerns instead of just forgetting about them.

Both speakers paint pictures of their concerns for the reader to see or visualize. In “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker gives a picture of a young boy holding on to his father’s shirt while his father was grasping the boys wrist and beating him with a belt. It is proved that he was beat by a belt through the line that states, “My