The subject matter of both pieces of writing is the father-son relationship. Both are told from the son's point of view and include his opinions and observations about the father. The themes are also similar: An alcoholic father's effect on his son. In McCourt's passage, we see that the father "has the smell of the drink on him", and a similar expression from the poem of Roethke is the first line: "The whiskey on your breath." These two expressions bring up the theme of the alcoholic father. These drunken fathers come home and force their sons to do artistic activities with them (singing in Angela's Ashes and waltzing in "My Papa's Waltz") although they are too drunk to properly do such activities.

The target audience of Roethke's poem is the alcoholic and abusive fathers just like his own. We can understand this from him addressing his father by...