Love is not just a feeling, but a commitment and sacrifice as well. In “Those Winter Sundays”, author Robert Hayden tells the story of a hardworking father waking up in the cold to kindle a fire, while his indolent son ungratefully slumps from his warm bed. The relationship between these two show that love can be shown in a variety of ways, but the diction and figurative language used by Hayden convey that sacrifice is the most subtle approach.
Hayden’s use of diction emphasizes the obverse traits shown by the hardworking father and his sleepy son. The first line states: “Sundays too my father got up early”, allowing the reader to infer that this story is set in the speaker’s past. Sunday, which most people acknowledge as the day of rest, is everything but for the narrator’s father. He wakes up early, into the “blueblack cold”, like he does every other day of the week, to make “banked fires
…show more content…
He sacrifices his own rest and comfort in order to ensure his family’s. His hands, which “cracked and ached” from years of labor work, push him out of bed every morning, start fires, and go back to work again. Hayden’s word choice reveals that the narrator’s father is a hardworking man who provides for his family, no matter how much it taxes himself, yet “no one ever thanked him,” including his weary son. This exemplifies the “lonely offices”of a parent’s love,which the speaker regrets misunderstanding in his adolescence. Parents are expected to love, care for, and teach their children without the need of thanks or a reward. When this view is shared by both the parent and their child, their bond becomes more of a duty than a relationship. The love becomes cold and “austere”, instead of warm and inviting, detaching the parent from their child, or in this case, a father from his son. The young man is well aware of his father’s struggle, but never tried to get up
“Those Winter Sundays” tells of Robert Hayden’s father and the cold mornings his father endures to keep his family warm in the winters. In “Digging” Heaney is sitting in the window watching his father do hard manual labor, which has taken a toll on his body. In “My Father as a Guitar” Espada goes to the doctors office with his father and is sitting in the office with his dad when the doctor tells him he has to take pain killers and to stop working because his body was growing old and weak. The authors of the poems all look at their fathers the same; they look at them with much respect and gratitude. All three poems tell of the hard work the dads have to do to keep their family fed and clothed. “The landlord, here a symbol of all the mainstream social institutions that hold authority over the working class” (Constantakis.) Espada’s father is growing old and his health is deteriorating quickly but his ability to stop working is not in his own hands, “I can’t the landlord won’t let me” (774.) “He is separated from the homeland, and his life in the United States is far from welcoming” (Constantakis.) Espada’s Grandmother dies in Puerto Rico and the family learns this by a lett...
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden is a poem about a how the author is recalling how his father would wake up early on Sundays, a day which is usually a reserved as a day of rest by many, to fix a fire for his family. The mood of this poem is a bit sad. It portrays a father, who deeply cares for his family but doesn't seem to show it by emotions, words, or touching. It also describes a home that isn't very warm in feelings as well as the title" Those Winter Sundays" The author describes the father as being a hard worker, in the line "…with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday…", but still even on Sundays--the day of rest, the father works at home to make sure the house is warm for his family. The "blueblack cold described in the poem is now warmed by a father's love. This poem describes the author reminiscing what did not seem obvious at the time, the great love of his father, and the author's regretting to thank his father for all that he did.
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The author begins the second chapter by recalling his father’s appearance. He describes his father as a “really fine looking man”. Continuing, he explains how his father “dressed carefully” so much that he even “put an open white handkerchief in his breast pocket”. Though in these descriptions he appears to have a positive, respectful attitude toward his father, he proceeds to mention numerous ways in the contrary. In one of the following paragraphs he makes the statement, “Nothing could ever persuade Father that he was anything but a naturally home-loving body – which, indeed, for a great part of the time, he was”. By saying this the author recognizes that his father thinks of
His ungratefulness as a child has now emerged on him, leaving the speaker ashamed of taking his father’s hard work for granted. In this poem he writes, “…fearing the chronic angers of that house//Speaking indifferently to him/who had driven out the cold…” (Hayden, 17). When he quotes “fearing chronic angers”, the speaker refers to his view of life as a child, and how he interpreted his father’s agony and self-sacrifice as anger towards him. With an apathetic and cold attitude that accompanied his youth, he did not recognize the love that his father had for him. Hayden also writes, “What did I know, What did I know…” (Hayden 17). Repeating this rhetorical question twice it is obvious that the speaker, now as an adult, feels deep remorse over the way he had treated his father. With a matured mind, Hayden came to the realization that love comes in all shapes and forms, and his father’s love was shown through his selfless
Being a child, is one of the hardest stages of ones life. They go through doing all the wrongs in order to do the right, and they socially develop into a mature and sensible human being. During this stage of a young child's life, the roles of parenting are absolutely crucial. In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, I get a sense that the narrator does not have a special bond with his father, and that there is a sense of fear. I feel that in order to grow up and be a morally strong and stable person, you need a well-built relationship with at least one of you parents, if not both.
Most of his discontent is due to his father’s infidelity, and the dependency of money set by social standards. When his father’s secret of infidelity is brought to the surface Chris broods over the audacity of his father to put two families at risk for his selfish desires. This increases the tension already present shared between his father and himself because of their opposed ideas and stubborn stances on them. Chris, even as a child, always opposed the idea of monetary dependency that his parents worked so hard to obtain. Chris loathes his family and society’s infatuation that...
Many people don’t recognize others’ expressions of love. For instance, children may not realize that simple actions made by their parents are their parents’ way of saying “I love you.” In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden describes an adult who regrets not appreciating his father as a child, and who now has a better understanding of the challenging and occasionally lonely responsibilities of a parent. The way in which Hayden describes the father’s and the narrator’s actions, his use of K and hard C words, and his portrayal of love in the last line of the poem illuminate Hayden’s message that parents will do and sacrifice anything for their children out of love and, therefore, one should take time to appreciate them. The descriptions of the father’s and the speaker’s actions elucidate the idea that one of parents’ duties is to provide a better life for their children than they have, even if the children do not value what their parents are doing at the time.
His father worked hard no matter what state the weather was or his physical condition was, he had a family to care for, which was his objective. Next, the speaker says, “No one ever thanked him” (Hayden line 5). In the poem the speaker also says, “I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house” (Hayden lines 8 and 9). The speaker’s father was a hard working man who cared and provided for his family, but he did not receive any appreciation from them.
This is a unique poem on basis of the structure. It has a total of three stanzas and each of it consists of four lines. The poem does not have rhyme scheme and hence, it can be mistakenly taken to be a prose poem. Each line in the poem brings out various emotions expressed by the speaker and hence, the storyline is built up step by step.
In analyzing poetry there has to be a connection between the author and the reader, in order to understand what the author is trying to express through his/her work. The reader’s needs to be able to read between the lines. Tone and mood help the reader identify what the poem is trying to convey. To do this we need to figure out who the speaker is, and the relationship the speaker has with his/her family. We will be depicting “Those Winter Sundays,” “Digging,” “Dusting,” and “My Grandmother Would Rock quietly and hum” searching for these qualities.
The first gift Chris gave me was the full interpretation of responsibility. When Chris Gardner got abandoned by his wife and became an on-and-off-homeless salesman with a five-year old son, he didn’t mess up with life. I see a matured and brave man. Although tears already blurred his eyes, he hold tightly of his son and didn’t forget to tell him knock-knock jokes. He knows the art of being a good father. The fatherhood became Chris’s power sources and reason to carry on even when life collapse. I haven’t become a father, but I think being responsible is common to man in every age. It is man’s nature to be protective to persons h...
In Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, he recalls what his father did on every winter Sunday and how he treated his father in the childhood. By using vivid images and selective words, Hayden describes how his father expressed love to him and his regretting to how he treated his father.
“The Winter Sundays” is a poem that sets an example for kids in our current generation that may not appreciation their parents or their families. Hayden’s poem is a common situation that anyone can experience. Lesson is that you should appreciate your parents and love ones before they are gone and you are left with the feeling of guilt. That guilt can and will weigh heavy on you because your dad or mom have always been there and sacrificed everything for your