Those Winter Sundays

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The feeling of being overlooked, it’s its own type of feeling that touches your soul in a way that leaves you shocked, stunned, hurt. When you try so hard, put so much effort in, just for the people you are doing it for, not to give it a second glance. In familial situations, it can really hurt the parent or child’s feelings and could potentially break trust and love between them. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, the father of the speaker wakes up early each Sunday in winter (hence the title) to start the bank fires. He doesn’t receive thanks or grace, and others in the house get the luxury of sleeping in a little more, as they are slow to get up once the father starts the fire, whose actions get overlooked but do them anyway. …show more content…

In the story, the father’s generous and caring deeds that drop under the radar by his family emphasize that family love runs deeper and more unconditionally than no other and should be respected and realized by all family members. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays,” the speaker was unaware of the actions of his father and how much it mattered, “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Hayden 14-15). Hayden’s oblivious nod to his father’s actions imply that he turned a blind eye to his fathers offices and should have shown more care and respect for his father. Additionally, it says the speaker would often be speaking to his father without care or thoughts about what he does, “Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold'' (Hayden 10-11), the speaker’s uninterested and somewhat disrespectful tone that is implied to be used when talking to his father emphasizes that he never truly knew how much his father did for him at the time and would often speak in a disinterested manner which showed little respect and love for his father. This made me think about how sometimes we don’t appreciate the lengths of what our parents do for us and evoked the thought of how grateful we should be to have them, since some people don’t get the luxury of a loving family. I think Hayden is alluding to the fact that family love should be appreciated

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