The two speakers in "The Gift" by Li-Young Lee and "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke admire their father with great admiration. admiration of the eyes. Comparing these two poems, we can say that what stands out the most is the similar theme: each boy received a gift from his father. In both poems, the father has a great influence on his son, as the speaker is a young boy who learns from his father's actions rather than his words. Both speakers have a similar attitude towards the head of the family – the father, which is understood through the speakers' tone, figurative language and memorable images. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayIn terms of narrative voice, the speakers of "The Gift" and "My Papa's Waltz" are also very similar. The diction of both poems makes it clear that the speaker is now an adult remembering a childhood memory. The speaker of “The Gift” remembers a time when his father removed a splinter from his hand. He says: “I was seven years old when my father took my hand like this” (24-25). Although the shared memory is an experience the speaker had when he was seven years old, he tells the story as an adult. The speaker has carried some moments from his childhood with him over the years, and now he is older and already married. This sense of remembrance is clear when the speaker says, “I lean on my wife's right hand” (20). Similarly, the speaker of "My Papa's Waltz" remembers a time when he was playing with his father. The speaker remembers, “With every step you missed/My right ear scratched a curl” (11-12). The images here reveal that the boy is as tall as his father's curl. Like “The Gift,” the poem’s diction confirms that the boy is now an adult. For example, the speaker recalls that “such a waltz was not easy” (4). In his adult memories, the speaker is able to describe playing with his father as a waltz. What makes these poems unique is how both narrators recount their experiences through the innocent eyes of a child. This childlike view further helps illuminate how the boys felt about their father and the father-son relationships they shared. In both poems, the boys see their father in a serious and innocent way, and each poem sets the tone revealing what each boy felt. admiration and unconditional love for his father. In “The Gift,” the speaker uses a heartfelt metaphor to describe his father's voice: “[I hear] his voice again, a well/of dark water, a prayer” (7-8). By associating his father's voice with a dark well of water, the speaker refers to the memory of his father's voice as something profound that he will never forget. His father's voice in prayer means that this is something very sacred to the boy, even now that he is a man. The boy feels very proud to be a man like his father whom he admires. This is evident from the description of him taking the splinter from his wife's hand: "Look how I shave her thumbnail/so carefully that she feels no pain" (21-22). Similarly, in “My Papa's Waltz,” the boy loves his father unconditionally, so much so that he doesn't want to stop playing and go to bed; “made me waltz into bed/Still clinging to your shirt” (14-15) The speaker admires his father who has “whiskey on [his] breath” (1), a “palm hard covered with dirt” ( 13), and a hand “struck on a phalanx” (9). The description of his father clearly shows that he is a rough, masculine and hard-working man. The speaker's diction, such as "I held on like death" (3), has an.