Those Winter Sundays Analysis Essay

The poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden is about an adult reflecting on his childhood relationship with his Father. The speaker in the poem describes a normal “Winter Sunday” in his childhood. Using primarily imagery and tone, Hayden reveals the speaker’s feelings towards his relationship with his Father, which is described as “cold,” but in the end, the speaker reveals he was blind to how his Father showed affection.

In the first stanza, Hayden uses an allusion and images to suggest the sacrifices of the Father. For example, Hayden uses “Sundays too” as a way to reveal one of the sacrifices. The phrase “Sundays too” is an allusion to the Bible’s day of Sabbath, which is Sunday and known as a day of rest. This displays one of the

Father’s sacrifices because the first line of the stanza says, “Sundays too my Father got up early” (Hayden 1), which shows that the Father scarifies his day of rest and gets up early to get work done. In addition, Hayden paints a picture of the Father through the use of imagery. In the next the speaker states, “And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (Hayden 2). The image displays another sacrifice of the Father by indicating that the Father awakes before sunrise, in the freezing cold, to begin the work he has to do for the day. In the rest of the stanza, the speaker offers additional images of his Father to show his Sunday routine and how he put personal comfort aside for the family, “then with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him (Hayden 3-5). These lines combine to shape the picture of a weathered, hard working Father. For example, the phrase “cracked hands that ached” suggests the Father had a job that involved hard, physical labor. The words, “banked fires blaze,” create an image of warmth and convey that the Father lit the fireplaces in the house. This stanza reveals that the Father sacrifices his “day off” to get up before sunrise, in the freezing cold, to warm the house for his family.
Additionally, Hayden begins to convey the tone of the poem in the last sentence of the first stanza, “No one ever thanked him” (Hayden 5). This sentence expresses the tone of regret and sorrow by the speaker realizing, as an adult, his Father was never thanked for all the sacrifices he made for the family.
Likewise, the second stanza primarily relies on the use of imagery unveil to the speaker’s relationship with his Father. For instance, the stanza begins with the line, “I’d wake up and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (Hayden 6). In this line, the speaker portrays the cold as a tangible thing; something that can be touched or felt, by describing that is breaking, splintering. This line suggests that the speaker awoke to a fading coldness. The proceeding lines, “When the rooms were warm, he’d call, / and slowly I would rise and dress” (Hayden 7-8) show a contrast between the speaker and the Father. This contrast is shown through their individual activities in the morning. For example, the speaker awakes to the coldness leaving the house, while the Father awakes to a “blueblack” cold. In addition, the speaker “slowly” rises and dresses for the day, while Father awakes before dawn and immediately begins working to care for his family and provide them warmth.
Furthermore, the use of personification is used at the end of the second stanza to reveal the speaker’s home environment. The line “Fearing the chronic angers of that house” (Hayden 9) shows the house as having human emotions. This use of personification reveals the speaker believes that an angry atmosphere surrounds the house. Also, the use of the word “chronic” portrays that this angry atmosphere is constant and not going away anytime soon. This line alludes to the relationship between the Father and the speaker because the line conveys a tense or angry household, which suggests a distant relationship between them. The second stanza helps convey their relationship through their contrasting actions and the speaker’s feelings towards the home environment.
Although the entire poem possesses a consistent tone, the last stanza emphasizes a tone of regret and sorrow:
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices? (Hayden 10-14)
The last stanza begins with the speaker acknowledging what his Father has done for him, “Who had driven out the cold / And polished my good shoes as well” (Hayden 11-12).

This acknowledgment displays the speaker showing regret for his treatment towards his Father as a child, which is suggested in the line, “Speaking indifferently to him” (Hayden 10). In these lines, the speaker shows his realization of how his Father showed love. The speaker understood that even though there was an emotional distance between himself and his Father, it did not mean there was not love. In the last two lines, the speaker returns from the flashback to reflect on his relationship with his Father. This reflection emphasizes the speaker’s regretful tone through the repeating of the phrase, “What did I know” (Hayden 13). This phrase reflects that he now understands that he did not know anything as a child, and he especially knew nothing about love. These last two lines show his newfound recognition that he knows much more about his Father’s love than he did when he was a child. As the last line states, “What did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices” (Hayden 13-14), the speaker reveals that love is not always hugs and kisses, but that love is waking up in the “blueblack cold” to warm the house for the

family.
Ultimately, this poem is about an adult looking back at his relationship with his Father and realizing the way his Father showed affection. Hayden’s use of imagery and tone strengthen the story by conveying the speaker’s feelings towards his Father. These uses of figurative language allow the speaker to reveal how the Father showed affection towards his family. The use of imagery and tone unveil the speaker’s discovery that love can be experienced in many ways and gestures.