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
While most of us think back to memories of our childhood and our relationships with our parents, we all have what he would call defining moments in our views of motherhood or fatherhood. It is clearly evident that both Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden have much to say about the roles of fathers in their two poems as well. While the relationships with their fathers differ somewhat, both men are thinking back to a defining moment in their childhood and remembering it with a poem. "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" both give the reader a snapshot view of one defining moment in their childhood, and these moments speak about the way these children view their fathers. Told now years later, they understand even more about these moments.
The lack of verbal communication between his father and himself can be seen in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." The overall impression of the poem is that love can be communicated in other ways than through words; it can be communicated through everyday, mundane actions. For example, in the poem, the father awakens on "Sundays too" to warm the house with a fire and polish his sons shoes. There is a sense of coldness in the beginning of the poem through the lines:
“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...
If I were asked who the most precious people in my life are, I would undoubtedly answer: my family. They were the people whom I could lean on to matter what happens. Nonetheless, after overhearing my mother demanded a divorce, I could not love her as much as how I loved her once because she had crushed my belief on how perfect life was when I had a family. I felt as if she did not love me anymore. Poets like Philip Levine and Robert Hayden understand this feeling and depict it in their poems “What Work Is” and “Those Winter Sundays.” These poems convey how it feels like to not feel love from the family that should have loved us more than anything in the world. Yet, they also convey the reconciliation that these family members finally reach because the speakers can eventually see love, the fundamental component of every family in the world, which is always presence, indeed. Just like I finally comprehended the reason behind my mother’s decision was to protect me from living in poverty after my father lost his job.
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
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 and light. The poem's theme is about a son that did not appreciate what the father did everyday for him and never thanked his father for that. The central meaning of the poem can be understood in either a negative way or a positive one towards the father. The child would weak up fearing the father because of his toughness "and ...
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.
In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”, the readers follow the narrator’s seemingly dark memory of his father: who worked, sacrificed, and endured many pains for his family, and mainly, his son (the narrator). As one reads, they come to see that this father is gratefully unappreciated. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the father is violent and abusive and the main contributing factor for why the narrator has come to fear him. As the narrator begins to end his reflection, he comes to a revelation and understanding of his father and seems to come to terms with the role he played in this father and son relationship. While in the young stages of life, many seem to lack an appreciation of those closest to us, our parents. It is only in time, when one becomes mature enough, do we see the reality of the many sacrifices, blood and tears that they, our parents, have shed for us and it is only than that one finally comes to fully appreciate those who gave us life.
The events of our childhood and interactions with our parents is an outline of our views as parents ourselves. Although Robert Hayden’s relationship with his father differentiates from the relationship of Theodore Roethke and his father, they are both pondering back to their childhood and expressing the events in a poem. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those winter Sundays” provide the reader with an image of a childhood event which states how fathers are being viewed by their children. These poems reflect upon the relationship of the father and child when the child was a youth. Both Roethke and Hayden both indicate that their fathers weren’t perfect although they look back admiringly at their fathers’ actions. To most individuals, a father is a man that spends time with and takes care of them which gains him love and respect. An episode of Roethke’s childhood is illustrated in “My Papa’s Waltz”. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, the father comes home showing signs of alcohol and then begins waltzing with his son. Roethke states that the father’s hands are “battered on one knuckle”. The mother was so upset about the dancing that she did nothing other than frown. At the end of the day, the father waltzed the son to bed. “Those Winter Sundays” is based on a regular Sunday morning. The father rises early to wake his family and warm the house. To warm the house, he goes out in the cold and splits wood to start a fire. This is a poem about an older boy looking back to his childhood and regretting that “No one ever thanked him.” In Those Winter Sundays'; by Robert Hayden, the poet also relinquishes on a regular occurrence in his childhood. On Sunday mornings, just as any other morning, his father rises early and puts on his clothes in the cold darkness. He ...
Parents go through a lot of problems in their life, but they never stop providing for their family. Parents always make sacrifices to provide for their family. In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Huges, the mother is trying to motivate her son by explaining to him the sacrifices she made in her live to get to the point where she was. She told her son to never look back or give up in life and just keep moving forward. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, the speaker talks about the sacrifices and hard work his father had to do to satisfy the family needs, even though nobody really appreciated him enough. Our parents are willing to do whatever it takes to make us happy. We should acknowledge their effort and appreciate them.
In Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” show that children have a hard time understanding why a parent is distant the speaker says “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on/ in the blueblack cold,”(Line 1-2) the father even gets up very early on Sundays as in the “blueblack cold” the speaker seems to not understand why the father does this why does he get up so early day after day? He seems to ask himself. The speaker observes that “ …With cracked hands the ached from labor in the weekday weather/ banked fires blazed”(Line 3-5) the father works hard for his family his hands are cracked and sore and he still gets up earlier then the rest of his family and makes the fire blaze to warm the house for them.
Dan Brown rightly said that no love is greater than that of a father and a son. It’s not just flesh and mind but the hearts that connect a father and a son. “My papa’s Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays”, by Robert Hayden, both describe the relationship between a father and a son. These poems share a common idea of revealing the relationship that the speakers share with their fathers and the poems simultaneously, offer a means of discovering and interpreting the setting, tone and theme among other elemental aspects of poetry. The poems seem a lot different, however they are alike in many significant ways. Both the poems swing around the different childhood memories of the speakers, yet show how love crosses all the borders of bitterness.
Guillermo Luna Dr.zach Eng 102 6/07/2024. Those Winter Sundays Sacrifice The poem “ Those Winter Sundays “ by Robert Hayden, is about a father’s sacrifice that seems to go unnoticed by his kids. This is proven towards the end of the poem where it is stated that his sacrifice is only going noticed once the father is not in the picture anymore, this is made apparent by the author stating, “What did I Know, What did I Know”. This implies that for some unknown reason the father is no longer here, and that the tasks that the father would do before leaving for his harsh labor, are now finally noticed since he is no longer there to do the tasks. This is further elaborated on with the reader being able to imply that the author is now aware of his father's sacrifice, but
A relationship is important to a father and son. The importance is acknowledging one another. Father and son relationships are important in the poems, “My Papa’s Waltz,” “Those Winter Sundays,” and “My Father’s Hat.” Theodore Roethke acknowledges his father’s love and attention in his poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Robert Hayden acknowledges his father in his poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by recognizing his father’s hard work and sacrifice. Mark Irwin acknowledges his father in his poem, “My Father’s Hat.”
God created life to be everlasting, as well as marriage. For generations, Christians have been concerned that seeking for a marital partner was against Gods wishes and would jeopardize their relationship with the lord. God created the world with the intentions of all marrying. “When our lord presented Eve to Adam he intended a marital relationship to be a blessing for his couple and the future generations that would be born through them”. Marriage is a lifelong commitment and that is the way God wanted it to be. God commends marriage, but frowns upon divorces.