Those Winter Sundays

Consequently, those who never seek gratitude silently give love to all they have. In “Those Winter Sundays” the author, Robert Hayden, depicts a child looking back on a frigid morning and becoming aware of his father’s daily acts of affection. The poem’s narrator is a child who is not clearly classified as male or female, but can be assumed to be the father’s son. The poem begins by illustrating a father rising at dawn on a bitterly cool weekend, a day of rest. Although his hands are worn down and chapped from the work of previous weeks, the father builds a fire to combat the teeth-chattering conditions of his family’s home without receiving adoration. The son is awoken to the sound of a crackling fire dissipating the cool winter’s air and then summoned by his father, prompting him to get ready and clothe himself. Once he is in his father’s presence, the son is uninterested when addressing him, although he has buffed his nice shoes and provided him
He works to provide and support his family everyday through simple tasks and labor. The father consistently provides for his family even on days of rest, “Sundays too” (line 1). Though the father works to provide for his family throughout the weekdays, he also manages to continue on the weekends. Furthermore, his physical appearance emphasizes the harsh duties he endures, “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” (3-4). Despite his chapped and sore limbs, he remains diligent and carries on with his work. Despite the father’s great effort, his family pays no heed, “Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold” (10-11). This display of the father demonstrates him casting out the cold from the family’s home, working to protect those he loves from the brisk air despite them blindly icing him out. Though the father works exceptionally hard every day, he remains unnoticed and gains no