Famous poems about fathers and daughters

Poems for and about Daughters

The relationship between fathers and their children changes over time, and these poems capture some of the feelings between a father and his child. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden In this famous poem, the poet chronicles the ordinary, unacknowledged acts of a father. Childhood Ideogram by Larry Levis Every life is touched by places and people, and even when that life ends its texture remains. In Dreams by Kim Addonizio The poet says she no longer mourns her dead father or has dreams of him that trouble her sleep. Instead, in her dreams she wanders through crooked houses and chases an uncatchable scrap of paper. I heard it read by G. Keillor on NPR and loved it.

Some poets describe fathers they remember through their labor, fathers they know as bastions of support, as Robert Hayden's speaker does in his poem " Those Winter Sundays ," which describes a father's dutiful labor in the "blueblack cold. Other poets may present a more comic take on fatherhood. Like all notions of dignity, fatherhood, in its dignity, invites the banana peel fall of satire. Finally, many poets have used poetry as a way to pay tribute to their fathers, to mourn them, or to plead with them through time. And I did not lift up my wound and cry I kissed my father.