Those Winter Sundays Theme

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Recommended: Comment on the theme of the poem and how the structure supports the poem those winter sundays by Robert Hayden

In "Those Winter Sundays" Robert Hayden gives a significant example of a father's love. Through this poem, the author wants to convey a beautiful message regarding the unconditional love a father has for his child. The poem depicts many different ways a father can show his endless love and care.
Many people probably dislike to wake up early, especially on a Sunday morning. But in this poem, the father gets "up early" (line 1). Then the father dresses himself up in the "blueblack cold" (2). Here, cold weather is given a color. Apart from being described as a color, it also gives the reader a sense of coldness. After getting dressed up, the father lights the fire with his splintered hands "that ached" (3). The "cracked hands" (3) and "labor in the weekday" (4) outlines the diligence of the father to help fulfill the needs of his family. It gives a sense of the financial condition of the family being a little weak. …show more content…

The "breaking" (6) of the cold gives a feeling of the rooms getting warm. The father then asks the child to wake up "when the rooms were warm" (7). The child dresses himself quickly when he agitates about the "chronic angers of that house" (9). The father does not want the child to catch cold and hence, he controls "the cold" (11). The father has also kept the "good shoes" (12) ready and polished for the day. Ignoring all the little favors that the father did, the child converses "indifferently to him" (10). Not realizing his father's immense love for him, the child does not really pay any heed to his father's words and his little efforts. The child never appreciates his father. Meaning of some things are understood later in life. Similarly, it is later in life, when the child realizes the significance of his father's love and learns to appraise his father's love. The child, who is now an adult, feels guilty for not appreciating his father's love when he had the

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