Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays

"Those Winter Sundays" is a very touching poem. It is written by Robert Hayden who has written many other poems. This paper will talk about the poem "Those Winter Sundays". In particular we will look at the structure, main idea, and each stanza of the poem.

Authors tend to write on subjects that they know the most about, or subjects that affect them on a personal level. Authors and poets use various aspects of life for the basis of their works, such as life experiences, romances, and family roles. Poems like “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “Forgiving My Father” by Lucille Clifton feature one of the most important roles in a family: a father. The two poems differ vastly in many regards, but many similarities surface among them and a common theme resides between them. Through the similarities they hold, the poems represent a common theme of regret for one’s lack of action.

If I were asked who the most precious people in my life are, I would undoubtedly answer: my family. They were the people whom I could lean on to matter what happens. Nonetheless, after overhearing my mother demanded a divorce, I could not love her as much as how I loved her once because she had crushed my belief on how perfect life was when I had a family. I felt as if she did not love me anymore. Poets like Philip Levine and Robert Hayden understand this feeling and depict it in their poems “What Work Is” and “Those Winter Sundays.” These poems convey how it feels like to not feel love from the family that should have loved us more than anything in the world. Yet, they also convey the reconciliation that these family members finally reach

Regret is shown in “Those Winter Sunday’s” by using diction. The way he uses the words in the poem help the reader understand the regret the narrator is feeling. Robert Hayden’s diction makes the poem run smoothly and easy to understand and read. The diction in the last stanza is calmer than in the other two. The third stanza shows that the narrator understood what his father went through and that his father really loved him. The words in the first two stanzas are harsher. Two examples are “blackblue cold” and “cracked hands” (540). Robert Hayden choice these words for emphasis. He also uses these words as a contrast. A contrast between hot and cold. An example of this is when he says, “and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (540). He is emphasizing how cold the air was compared to his warm clothes. Hayden emphasis the work that the father had to go through so his family did not have too.

Poetry, the feeling and emotions of the soul recorded on paper for men, women and children alike to interpret and enjoy. When a poet puts their thinking cap on, the result is much more substantial than rushed lines and forced rhymes; if effort is put into the reader's interpretation of the work, the feelings and emotions put into the text are revealed. Through love, empathy, and remorse the speaker's state of mind is divulged as a state of reflection in "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden.

“Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden describes a father relationship during the cold mornings. The poem focuses on a child’s memory where they’re looking back at a certain point in life that they regret. The speaker starts off the poem reflecting on his past, more importantly his relationship with his father.

During childhood, people possess a natural inclination to rely on their parents without sufficiently appreciating them. This often influences them to take advantage of their parents, as well. Children are prone to become accustomed to the chores their parents complete for them on a daily basis because their parents’ helpful and generous efforts are apt to be interpreted as ‘normal’ and perhaps even expected. However, as adults, they must assume similar roles and responsibilities to those of their parents when they themselves were children, thus encouraging a better understanding of the significance that their parent’s sacrifices hold. The speaker in Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” has this type of perspective-altering realization

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is a rich vessel that transports its audience to the speakers past. It is a vivid memory, extracted maybe from a personal journal or diary, where a child distinctly remembers and relives those intimate winter Sundays where his father would wake up early in the morning to warm up the house and shine the boys church shoes. The poem starts off by exposing a confused and cold relationship between father and son but as the poem comes to an end the speaker seems to understand more of his father’s sacrifice. Robert Hayden’s purpose in the poem is to acknowledge parental sacrifice, duty and “love’s austere and lonely offices”. The structure of the poem is iambic and is split into three stanzas without any pattern of rhyme or consistent rhythm.

In Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden writes from the perspective of a son who is looking back on his relationship with his father with regret. Hayden begins the poem saying, “Sundays too my father got up early.” This expresses how Hayden’s father worked every day in order to support his son. This is followed by cacophonous words such as “blueback,” and “ached” to portray the physical labor that the narrator’s father displayed on a daily basis. Hayden then writes, “with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday.” This imagery alludes to the idea that the father is a day laborer during the week, similar to Roethke’s father in My Papa’s Waltz. But unlike Roethke’s father, the amount of imagery correlating with physical labor shows the reader that Hayden’s father portrays his love for his son through physical labor. Hayden goes on to describe his house in the morning saying, ([I would rise] fearing the chronic angers of that house, speaking indifferently to [the father].” Unlike the intimate atmosphere of My Papa’s Waltz, this imagery of chronic anger leads the

When his dad turns on the chimneys and stoves, to make the house warm for his loved ones. His striking words make me invoke thoughts in my mind of this persevering dad up alone wide open to the harsh elements. When he noted his dads, hands were cracked, and that they ached it was a great use of imagery. This was used to portray how hard-working he was, as well as a symbol for all the agony and inconvenience he was willing to bear for his family.

Relationships between children and their parents can be complex. Often, once the child grows up, they begin to have a greater understanding and are able to reflect on those relationships. In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden writes of a son looking back on his relationship with his father and it’s complexity. Their intricate relationship comes from the son feeling guilt about how unaware he was of everything his father did and how blinded he was by his childish judgments. Using details to look back on childhood, sound devices to show a masked feeling and repetition of the word cold to elaborate on the emotional distance the father shows, the speaker portrays his seemingly strict, yet caring father and an unknowing and indifferent

In his poem “Those Winter Sundays” Robert Hayden he uses symbolism, imagery, and repetition to characterize the son’s feelings as regretful towards his father. Hayden uses the “cold” in each stanza which symbolizes the distance between the son and father, showing that the son could not clearly see that his father loved him. Hayden uses imagery with the “cracked hands” to describe how the father shows his hard work and dedication for his son. The son notices his cracked hands but only associates it with his father's work and not with how his father is also trying to support his family. On the second to last line is says, “What did I know, what did I know”.

In the poem Those Winter Sundays describes a man recollecting a time in his childhood about his father. Father can play an important role in a child's life. In the first stanza the author acknowledges the sacrifice his father made for by waking up earlier. Waking up early on the weekend may show a great sacrifice in many people's eyes. The imagery uses as the author describes his fathers hands as "cracked hands that ached" showing the apparition of his fathers hard work for the family. The son is showing pride in this line by stating "no one ever thank himed". Did the father asked to be thanked? The authors describes the authority his father had over the household by stating "fearing the chronic angers of that house". Speaking as a child would

In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays” the father of the son sacrificed everything he had to keep his son happy and safe. Robert Hayden stated, “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (783). The son always

The visual and tactile imagery in Those Winter Sundays shows realization to the narrator to bring a tangible feel to the reader's words. In this poem the father loved in an indifferent way which the narrator later in life understands that his dad did truly love him he just was not greatest at showing his love. From the start, the relationship between the narrator and his father is bad and dark. But throughout the poem the words contrast to a brighter consciousness to his father’s love. With a close examination with visual and tactile imagery Robert Hayden allows the narrator to realize and mature his view of his father’s love as he grows older.