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Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays

Decent Essays

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

Those winter Sundays written by Robert Hayden is a poem to ponder for a while. The poem may look simple, but analyzing it deeply shows that is a complicated one with a well-defined sentiment of no appreciation and sorrow towards his father. These sentiments will change to the end of the poem. Also, the poem can be understood in various ways: one way could be a positive feeling from the writer towards his father or the other one could be a complaint about his father's toughness. The choice of words that Robert Hayden uses is not complicated, which makes it easy to read and understand at first glance and produces imagery of gloom and cold changing to warmth …show more content…

But the kid did not realize that the father sacrifices his comfort waking up early in the morning to ignite the fire in order to heat up the house and give comfort to his family "Sundays too many 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./ No one ever thanked him" (1-5). There is no doubt that the father was a noble and responsible man.

The writer uses middle diction because he uses an educated language but not elevated enough to be considered formal diction. He describes what the child would do on Sunday mornings: "I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking./ When the rooms were warm, he'd call,/ and slowly I would rise and dress," (6-8). The writer uses a proper choice of words and reduces the formality with the apostrophe in the line number six.

Another aspect of the poem that emphasizes the background of the poem is the syntax.

"Sundays too many my father got up early /and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold" (1-2). Robert Hayden writes blueblack before cold to be more specific on the description of the early morning, which gives the idea of an uncomfortable cold weather.

The author's tone on this poem changes from sorrow and bitterness to love and thankfulness. "then with cracked hands that ached/ from

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