Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden

The narrator of, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, had a complicated relationship, containing silent sacrifices and silent appreciation. First, their complicated relationship is seen by the father’s silent sacrifices he makes for his son. One sacrifice is seen when the father wakes up early on the weekend to ensure the house is warm when his son rises to dress. The sensory imagery included in this poem makes the fathers sacrifice dire, as the outdoors are described as “blueback cold” (Hayden 2). The father makes a silent sacrifice for his son.

Its dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other. “Those Winter Sundays” is a poem written by Robert Hayden in 1962. In the poem, the speaker remembers his past experiences with this father as it describes the typical winter Sundays for the protagonist . The poem illustrates the broken relationship between the speaker and the father, without saying it directly, but instead through the way the poem is formatted. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden exposes a broken relationship due to understanding between the father and the child, through grim diction, apologetic tone,conflicting imagery.

In the analysis of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” and Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” both modernistic and highly respected poets similarly write with a sense of reminiscence of childhood experiences. Similarly, both poems are about a memory as a boy looking back at a specific time in their lives and the love they have for their respected fathers. A similar implication is expressed in the way of their lives not being perfect, but still remaining a humble family. This is shown within the first stanza of “My Papa’s Waltz” with an intoxicated father, as well as the first stanza of “Those Winter Sundays” with a hard-working, yet poor and achy father. Both poets’ usage of figurative language is present in ways of metaphorically speaking and alliteration. For example, in Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” the speaker compares the cold to an object that can splinter and break, by insinuating “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.” (Hayden, line 5) More so, in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” the term “But I hung on like death” (Roethke, line 3) is presented as a metaphor as well. They have some common poetic themes shared between such as love, family, and admiration, however, they are presented in different ways in accordance their tones, making them unique. In analyzing the two, although quite similar, the structure, mechanics, tones, settings, and the interpreted mood of the poem, brings justification on their differences.

The first stanza uses concrete imagery to depict a working man “with cracked hands that ached” (3), the speaker’s father, starting a fire. The second stanza starts with warm connotations of the fire rescuing his home from the cold; however, the stanza ends with the speaker expressing his fear, a figurative coldness, of “the chronic angers of that house” (9). The third stanza completes the epiphany that the final line of the first stanza, “No one ever thanked him” (5) hints at. It is at this point that the speaker understands that his father expresses his love differently. While the speaker was looking for an overt expression of his father’s love, his father, a working man, can only show his love with the means by which he is familiar. To the father, love is an expression of actions, actions that the speaker is oblivious to during his childhood. By the setting being early Sunday morning, it shows that the father’s actions, as a symbol of his love, are omnipresent and supersede his own desire for rest. The final lines of every stanza reflect the speaker’s growing realization that he was indeed loved by his father, that he initially didn’t recognize his father’s actions as an expression of this love, and that his obliviousness to this unfamiliar expression of love helped contribute to what

The language chosen by Robert Hayden in his poem “Those Winter Sundays” and Theodore Roethke in “My Papa’s Waltz” clearly indicates the unique emotional and personal relationships between the two narrating sons and their fathers.

In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, the author realizes he failed to appreciate the kind acts of his father. In the poem he states, “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze.” (Hayden, Online). This quote explains that daily, and even on Sundays, his father woke up early in order to warm the house for the family. Furthermore, the author states, “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Hayden, Online). In this quote, the author is stating that as a child he was unaware of the fact that love and care were more than just hugs but about the sacrifices people made in order to provide happiness and comfort for others. He ultimately failed to understand the sacrifices his father made to keep young, Robert Hayden, happy.

The childhood of Robert Hayden consisted of a continuous and frightful relationship between him and his adopted father. Hayden relates the memories of his adoptive father’s harsh love within his poem Those Winter Sundays; centralizing the poem on the speakers’ memory in relation to his adoptive father. Now that the speaker has matured he reflects on his past realizing the sacrifices his father made. Hayden utilizes this experience as an allusion to parallel the sacrifice of parenthood with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Making the argument that parents are burden with the life-long responsibility of protecting, nurturing, and providing for their children until their deaths—disregarding the need to have a blood bond.

In the poem Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, the theme is regret and realization can lead to the loss of innocence. In this poem, the narrator is telling a story about how their dad used to work hard but wasn’t appreciated. While telling the story, the narrator realizes what his father went through and regrets not thanking him. For example the poem starts with the narrator saying “Sundays too my father got up early”(Hayden 1). When reading this first line you can infer that the narrator’s father gets up early everyday. When his father gets up early everyday, the narrator realizes how hard he works and how committed he is to providing for his family. In addition, at the end of the first stanza which is about what the narrator's father

In Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays," there are various elements of the poem that work to contribute to the poem’s emotional appeal of sadness and regret. The speaker recounts his past and his apathy to his father when he was a child. Throughout the text the readers can feel the speaker's regret through the author’s diction. His use of the past tense and references to time throughout the poem suggest that, over time, the speaker has reached a new perspective and perhaps a reluctant forgiveness for his father expresses the tone of regret. When describing the relationship between the father and the speaker, the choice of words the author uses like “cold, fearing, and chronic angers” evokes the negative connotations of a hostile environment

Robert Hayden was an American poet, educator, and Poet Laureate of the earlier 1900s. He provides readers with an example of taking a parent’s selflessness for granted in one of his most well-known poems, “Those Winter Sundays.” The speaker reflects on an earlier time in his life where his father worked hard to provide for his family, which leads the audience to believe he might have still

Those Winter Sunday's written by Robert Hayden is about a look back at a certain point in his life where he has regret. This is a poem about a memory in our authors life. In Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays," the author is a man taking about his past with his father and the type of relationship he had with his father when he was a child. Now that the author has grown up he has been able to realize so much more that his father did for him than what he realized as a child. The author has now realized how his father showed his love for him when they were both living together in his childhood. The author now since he has grown up has found it easier to understand how hard it is to be a parent. The title of the poem is appropriate in many different

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden depicts a son’s maturation and realization of the vastness of what love is and how it is portrayed. More specifically, a dysfunctional father-son relationship is detailed as the father undertakes seemingly indirect but arduous acts that contribute towards a homely environment. As a result, the poem reveals that love isn’t always evident as it is displayed through a plethora of vehicles. Hayden bolsters this theme through a variety of strategies like harsh consonance and symbolism.

The poem “ Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, illustrates an emotional distance between a father and his child. The speaker in the poem reminisces his father and what kind of relationship they had. The underlying message reflects the relationship of the speaker and his father, and this is developed with symbols throughout the poem. In this poem, Hayden’s hidden message explores a father-child relationship, a relationship where love is not evident.

Sam Burns AP Literature Ms. Haugen October 6, 2014 Regret The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is a poem about a grown man reflecting back on memories of his father during the speaker’s childhood. Through his use of imagery and symbolism, Hayden effectively expresses his regret for not loving his father, as he should have.

Robert Hayden’s 1966 poem entitled “Those Winter Sundays” is a seemingly superficial illustration of a typical Sunday morning in the narrator’s childhood home. The short length of the poem, along with the use of straightforward diction, however, conceals the darker subject matter that the author is trying to convey. The poem describes the narrator’s regret, in hindsight, that he did not recognize or appreciate his father’s love during childhood. Through his strategic use of punctuation, specific diction, and symbolic structure, Robert Hayden, in his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” reflects on a strained and regretfully underappreciated relationship between father and son.