Poem Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden

The poem “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, tells a story about a boy’s affection for his father. Throughout the poem, it can be seen how much the son admired his father. Also, it can be seen how much his father selflessly did for his family and how this related to how his son felt about him. Lastly, this poem has made me think of how this relates to my own life.
This poem is from the perspective of a man telling about his experiences from his youth. He tells how “Sundays too [his] father got up early/ and put his clothes on in the blueback cold,/ then… made banked fires blaze” (lines 1-5). This was his son reflecting back on how much his father sacrificed for him and the family. No one likes getting up early on a Sunday to go out in the freezing cold to work, however, he
did it anyway and no one ever said thank you to him yet he still did it. When the narrator was young, he was not able to truly appreciate all that his father did for him and his family. It was only once he got older that he was able to truly see how his father would do things that he did not like to do, but that had to get done. He even said he would “[speak] indifferently to him,/ [he] who had driven out the cold/ and polished my good shoes as well” (lines 10-12). He would speak to him in an uninterested way because at the time he failed to grasp the luxuries of the comfort of life he was living all because of his father waking up before the family to beat out the cold and for his shoes to already be nice and shiny when he wakes up as if by magic. It is always hard to see the hardships and sacrifices parents make for kids to live a good life and we usually do not end up seeing it until we are older.
The narrator's father selflessly did so much for his family and this related to how the son felt about him.
What the narrator's father went through for him and his family went unnoticed which can be seen when he said: “no one ever thanked him” (line 5). When the narrator thought back on all of the sacrifices his father had made, it really enhanced the way he felt regarding his father. He now speaks so highly of what his father had done when at the time he treated it indifferently. Sadly, this is the case for most people, it is rare that while people are young they realize the extent of what their parents sacrifice for them. This reminds me of a line from Passenger’s hit song “Let Her Go”, “only need the light when it's burning low/ only miss the sun when it starts to snow/ only know you love her when you let her go”. The song is all about how you really never know what you have until you no longer have it. This relates to the poem because the narrator never knew how much his father did for him until he was, presumably, older and out on his own where his father is not longer making these sacrifices for him or possibly he is a father now himself making his own sacrifices for his own
family.
This poem really resonates with me and relates back to my own life. My grandparents have always been a huge part of my life since I was born. My grandparents have always worked so hard to be able to get me whatever I wanted when I was young. Now do not get me wrong, my mother was also always there for me and sacrificed so much for me, however, this story more reminds me of my grandparents. So my grandparents always were able to get me whatever I wanted when I was small and I never ever thought about exactly what they were doing for me. I always thought that we just had enough money for everything I wanted but I never thought about how when I was getting everything I wanted, my grandparents never got anything for themselves. They would spend all their money on me and never buy themselves anything at all and I never realized this until I was much older and really started to appreciate all they did to give me the amazing childhood I had. Exactly like in the story, I treated these sacrifices indifferently because at the time I did not even recognize the sacrifices. I feel like this type of not appreciating what our parents and families do for us happens all too often.
This poem shares the story of a son looking back on his childhood and his father. It shows how much the son appreciates all his father’s sacrifices for him and his family. Throughout the poem, we see a newfound admiration for his father that only happened later in his life. It’s seen exactly how his father's sacrifices impacted his son. Also, how his son really failed to grasp it all when he was young. This story really brought up some emotion in me through my childhood experiences with my grandparents as well.