My Little Son And My Beloved By Morris Rosenfeld - 928 Words

Since a poem is often less than a standard page in length, it is useful to consider similar poems to each other in order to locate a textual echo. The poems â€Å"My Little Son† and â€Å"To my Beloved†by Morris Rosenfeld both echo themes of struggling familial structure due to the stress and time devoted to working. In all three of these poems the protagonist is conflicted between the amount of work he has to do in order to support his family, and the lack of time he is actually getting to spend with his family. The amount of work and use of modern technology greatly impacts the family structure of the immigrants in these poems, and requires them to make great sacrifices as they are forced to choose between being productive at work and having a good relationship with their family. This tough decision will greatly effect both the immigrant worker and the rest of his family as the author tries to communicate the difficulty of working so hard and such long hours in immi grant America. The tension between time spent at work and time spent with family is clear in both of Rosenfeld’s poems, as well as the adverse effect that working long hours has on relationships. In â€Å"To My Beloved† the speaker has worker is too busy working and has â€Å"hired out my arms and hands,† and therefore is not able to embrace his beloved who has come to see him while at work (Rosenfeld 27). The speaker exclaims that â€Å"here I may not embrace you—no,† to his significant other, and instead encourages her to â€Å"come to