Robert Hayden's 'Those Winter Sundays': Personal Response

I was able to connect to this poem as I experienced mutual feelings for my own father. Similar to the narrator in the writing, I too feel

He concludes the poem by saying ‘The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori’ showing that he feels that his experiences are far from beautiful or even honourable.

“Those Winter Sundays” written by Robert Hayden, depicts the ungratefulness that a young boy has towards his hardworking father. Later in the poem, as he matures, he begins to realize everything his father has done for him, and his feelings suddenly change. Throughout the poem, Hayden uses numerous examples of imagery, personification, and foreshadowing to show how the speaker’s attitude regarding his father transforms from the perspective of a child to the perspective of an adult.

In Those Winter Sundays, Eating Alone, and My Papa’s Waltz, the speakers all experience some form of isolation, while recalling their childhood relationship with fathers. This isolation causes loneliness, which then takes a variety of forms such as emotional, physical, or both. The fact that these authors brought to our attention these specific poems, shows that children inherit certain values from their emotional connection with their fathers in childhood, and take those values with them into adulthood, and into their own families.

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.

A father-child relationship can be a good thing for some people, and problematic for others. There are different types of fathers. There are fathers who are always around their children, who give unconditional love and guidance. Then there are hard-to-please fathers who drain their children with extremely high expectations, leading to a strained relationship. Moreover, there are fathers who cannot handle the responsibilities that come with fatherhood, this type of fathers walk out on the family when the situation gets tough. Many people see their fathers in one way as a child and grow to see them in a whole different light as adults. The richness and complexity of the child and father relationship are the reason many poets write about fatherhood and fathers.

In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker talks about his father leaving for “labor”. Curiously, the father goes to work on a Sunday, the speaker then elaborates how his father goes to work very early “with cracked hands that ached” (3). The theme of this poem is that love does not always appear in a friendly or lovable form. Lines like “I would rise and dress/fearing the chronic angers of that house” (8-9), we can see that the speaker lives in a dysfunctional house and imagery of cold and harshness "cracked hands that ached," (3) "blueblack cold." (2). The reader can also interpret that the speaker and the father have a dysfunctional relationship, “the chronic angers of that house” (9) The diction the author uses, can be used to give

Being a child is one of the hardest stages in a person’s life. They go through doing all the wrong things in order to learn how to do the right things, and then they socially develop into a sensible mature adult. During this stage of a young child's life, the roles of parenting are absolutely crucial and determine a child’s role that he/she is going to play in society in the future. This is a crucial part of everyone’s life, they need to learn what they are good at and what they are not good at. In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, there is a sense that the narrator does not have a special bond with his father when he was a young boy, and that there is a sense of fear toward his father. I

“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.

Descriptive words such as “broken” (11), “helpless” (14), “darkness” (15), “despair” (22), and “emptiness” (51) show the grief and pain the speaker experiences due to his loss. Lowell’s diction also shows a shift in the poem from the “sweet” (2) and “calm” (4) that dramatically change into “tattered surges” (7) and “breaking gulfs of sorrow” (13). Furthermore, Lowell’s use of “drearily true” (34) and “dull shock” (42) show a bitter and sarcastic animosity within the speaker indicating his difficulty in falling for his friend’s comfort. In the final two lines, Lowell’s diction reaches a new level as he discusses the “emptiness” (50) that argues the friend to be incorrect and makes his “wisdom down” (51). Lowell’s use of diction shows how difficult the speaker finds it to recover not only from the shock of losing his daughter, but the difficulty to mend the empty hole within

He seems to not realize how much effort the dad uses for him, and he speaks coldly to his father’s warmth. The speaker, however, questions his thinking here. At this moment, he says, “What did I know, what did I know/of love’s austere and lonely offices?” The words lonely and austere give a tone that is sad and placid. They are lonely, but love’s austere shows a presence of love and not hate. Offices, is one’s duty in this way. The father and speaker’s “duty” is to love one another and not cause “cracked hands”. The son seems to finally understand his father’s nourishment towards him. Back in stanza one, the line “No one ever thanked him,” shows that the son is now regretful of his cold words toward his dad. The son and father now can see each other’s love toward one another

Everyone has a father. No matter if the father is present in a child’s life or not, he still exists and takes that role. A father has a major impact on his child whether he knows it or not, and that impact and example shapes the child’s perspective on life, and on love. The authors, Robert Hayden and Lucille Clifton, share the impact of their fathers through poetry, each with their own take on how their fathers treated them. The poems “Forgiving My Father” and “Those Winter Sundays” have significant differences in the speaker’s childhood experiences, the tone of the works, and the imagery presented, which all relate to the different themes of each poem.

In both “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “forgiving my father” by Lucille Clifton, the speakers have deep discontent with their fathers. They both describe issues they had with their father when they were a child, which resulted in lack of respect. In contrast, both poems show a different healing outcome of the child, that is now an adult, and their lasting opinions of their father. Both poems represent a way a child can deal with a childhood issue with a parent and what it is like to either overcome it or still have it festering inside.

He also describes the conditions of the father's hands demonstrating that he was a hard worker and still woke up before everyone else to warm up the rooms. The father basically says love in the simple act he does. Like many people I can personally relate to this poem. My father was not always demonstrative and affectionate but during my childhood years he always made sure I had everything I needed. That showed me that my father cared.

This arising tone of regret and distance is also formed by the speaker’s depiction of his father having “cracked hands that ached,” (1. 3) which further signifies the father’s struggle with the severe coldness. The concept of self-sacrifice is apparent in this portrayal of his father’s disregard to his own pain in order to provide warmth and light for his family’s home. The stirring of “banked fires blaze” (1. 5) within the house,