"Those Winter Sundays" and "Introduction to Poetry"

Reading how the author relates responding to poetry to how we listen to music made a great impact to me. A teacher can tell us a thousand times to read a poem more than once and her voice will probably go in ear and out the other; however, relating poetry to experiencing music connects. So now I shall read these poems more than once!

In "Those Winter Sundays" the speaker discusses the actions of her father on Sundays. From the poem we know he works hard and even on Sunday, the typical day of rest, he still gets up to take care of his family in the freezing cold. When reading this poem I flashed back to days of my childhood when my father would make us pancakes for breakfast. We had heat and no shoes to polish so this was his way of taking care of us and showing his love. After reading the book's thoughts on the poem, I thought it was interesting how yet said no one could know if the speaker was male or female. I read this poem thinking it was a female author, perhaps that's because it's what I can relate to.

In "Introduction to Poetry" the speaker, possibly a teacher, is talking to the audience. They are discussing analyzing poetry. In it the water uses numerous occasions of personification which seems to dumb down the poem and make it more relatable to the presumably inexperienced audience.

Class Notes:
"Those Winter Sundays"
Consonance with repetition of the 'k' sound sounds like fire. The setting is dated, no central heat. It's winter and deadly cold. The father is hardworking, but not appreciated. The speaker is looking back on childhood events that have affected his life. Perhaps he is now a father which has led him to guilt how he treated his own father. Love is like a thankless job. You don't appreciate what your parents do for you until you're in their position or until they're gone.
Literary Terms: Caesura, Enjambment, Consonance, Personification

"Introduction to Poetry"
The poem is a teacher asking students to analyze poetry or 'hold it up to the light'. He is frustrated that his students are trying to force things out of the poem to quickly and not seeing the real meaning.