Those Winter Sundays

The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is a perfect reflection of a child who has grown up and realized the importance of appreciating family and how they express love for you in their own special way. The persona of this poem is not quite gender specific, but many people may believe it is indeed a male who now reflects on his childhood relationship with his father with love, respect, and appreciation. The speaker has indeed matured a lot since his childhood and he can now recognize his fathers labor in and outside of the home as a form of love rather than neglect. The tone of the persona in this poem in the beginning is loving and sweet but towards the end it changes the tone from innocent to more somber, like there are more secrets inside the home. It is perceived that Robert Hayden wrote this poem to show the audience the importance of valuing each parent and realizing that everyone shows love in their own unique way, whether those emotions are expressed through actions or words.
First off, the speaker of “Those Winter Sundays” speaks to us from the present, but tells us about his childhood, which was cold. Based on the speaker’s description, we imagine him and his family living in a big old house, with lots of fireplaces. The air outside is frigid, as is his relationship with his father. Another note one may notice is the title of this poem “Those Winter Sundays”. The author, Robert Hayden, perhaps named this poem to show symbolism. This poem is very concerned with the temperature. The family’s house is cold and so are the children’s feelings towards their father. For example, “Sundays too my father got up early/ and put his clothes on in the blueback cold,/ then with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze” (1-5). This quote is a good example, which shows the father of the speaker would wake up before the rest of the family to light a fire to warm the house for the rest of the family. The father took care of his family to make sure the house was taken care of and the fire was lit before the rest of the children were awake… “When the rooms were warm, he’d call,/ and slowly I would rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of that house…” (6-9). This shows true love and dedication not through words, but through actions and hard work. Perhaps the speaker’s father was not very good with expressing his feelings through hugs, kisses and emotions so he did so through hard labor and physical actions. For example, Robert Hayden portrays a lot of imagery in “Those Winter Sundays” to allow the reader to create a more detailed mental image of what is going on in the poem. Hayden describes the father in the poem as having cracked hands that ached from labor… this shows that the speakers father does in fact work outside doing manual labor in order to make a salary to support his children and family. This poem is unique because one can easily be put in the speaker’s shoes and feel what he is feeling. It is easy to envision oneself in the speakers position as a child who doesn’t understand his parents and they way he presents his love. Since love is one of the themes of “Those Winter Sundays”, it is easy to depict the love in this poem. For example, “No one ever thanked him” (5). This shows the father completed hard tasks out of the love and goodness of his heart for his family, and never asked for anything in return. Another example of love in this poem is “Fearing the chronic angers of that house,/ Speaking indifferently to him,/ who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well” (9-12). Hayden writes that as a child, the speaker only seems to focus on his emotional relationship with his father, he neglects that his father only shows love by doing and not by saying and it goes way over his head. Later in the last stanza, the speaker confesses that he knew nothing about the expression of love. He now finally realizes his fathers love was there all along and he truly does care about him. In reality, I believe the speaker of this poem is split in two. For example, part of him fears his father and the other part looks back on him with respect and appreciation. Through growing up and maturing, he is now able to reflect on his life with love and happiness towards his father rather than neglect. There is a legitimate winter happening outside of the speaker’s house, and there is also winter inside the speaker’s heart. Also, one may notice in “Those Winter Sundays” the poem itself does not necessarily have a specific “rhyme meter” yet it is read in a sing-songy way. In phrases like “blueblack” and “banked fires blaze,” the poem alliterates a lot of harsh sounds, particularly on the letter B. When you read the poem out loud, the beginning of the poem sounds super unadorned, as if one can practically feel immersed into the cold relationship with the speakers father. In this poem, there is another kind of repetition in the poem—the repetition of an entire phrase. Line 13 is just a repetition of the same phrase twice: “What did I know, what did I know.” Which seems rather heartbreaking from the reader’s perspective. In conclusion, Robert Hayden approaches the reader with many different aspects of explaining a father son relationship in a different way. He uses different rhyme schemes and shifts in tone to get his point across. “Those Winter Sundays” is a simple yet complex poem in which the author uses symbolism, imagery, and also wordplay. “Those Winter Sundays” isn’t filled with hugs and kisses, but that doesn’t make it any less a love poem. Even though Hayden’s poem isn’t about romantic love (as so many sonnets are) it is about deep and enduring love—the love that a father has for his children, and the love that children have for their parents. Robert Hayden uses different themes throughout “Those Winter Sundays” which all portray different yet sentimental values. All in all, this poem paints a picture of a not so strong relationship, which in turn ends in a happy ending.

Hayden, Robert. "Those Winter Sundays." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.