No one ever thanked him.

My second tone poem is Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden on page 850 of the Norton.

The description of the father getting up early on "Sundays too" (suggesting that he gets up early every other day as well), despite "the blueblack cold" and his "cracked hands that ached," give the poem and cold, lonely feeling. The fact that "no one ever thanked him" just adds to this, making it even worse because the man never feels appreciation for all his hard work.

When the father finally warms up the house, the speaker gets up "slowly," taking his time to get ready, feuled by the heat which his father created. This makes the reader feel unsympathetic towards the speaker, despite the "chronic angers of that house." He does not speak further of these angers, but one could speculate they could arise from the father's feelings of underappreciation, among other things.

In the third stanza, the tone starts to shift. The speaker still acts and speaks "indifferently to him," which follows along the same line. However, when the speaker mentions that his father "polished my good shoes as well," two conclusions come of that. It now appears that the speaker does not really understand the lengths at which his father goes to provide and care for him, which, as a child, happens. It also shows that the father does care for his child, doing that extra thing for him, and does not feel resentment for the lack of gratitude he receives. The last two lines are twinged with regret. The speaker laments the fact that he did not "know/of love's austere and lonely offices," everything that his father did for him and all the hard, solemn work he selflessly did for the love of his family.

My Spanish isn't enough.

My first tone poem is Elena by Pat Mora, on page 854 of the Norton.



This poem speaks of a Mexican woman's frustration as her children grow up Americanized and she can no longer relate to them. In a sense it is nostalgic, as she remembers "how I'd smile/listening to my little ones/.../Vamos a pedirle dulces a mamá. Vamos." However, the next line, "But that was in Mexico." halts the reader and reveals a more bitter tone which continues through the rest of the poem.



It appears that her husband does not speak English either (because "'...he doesn't want you/to be smarter than he is.'"), yet still she feels "dumb, alone." While the woman feels this inadequacy and self-consciousness, her husband just sits idly by and "drank more beer," creating some subtle animosity between them because he does not support her and creating a wider blanket of that which the woman feels bitter and frustrated.



The irony of how her oldest child addresses her, starting in Spanish with "Mamá," but continuing in English, shows exactly the way in which her children and her new country make her feel inadequate. Her own children can no longer, or at the very least no longer try to, speak to her in Spanish, even though she struggles with the language. The desperation she feels to connect with her children and the world around her is apparent when she locks herself in the bathroom, practicing "the thick words softly." She relates her inability to speak and understand English to being "deaf," making the reader realize the dire need and necessity she feels to work past her shame and learn it.

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.....haha such horrible grammar : )