Contrite Diction In Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden

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Through contrite diction in “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden conveys a regretful tone. The first sentence starts with in media res suggesting that the son is reflecting on his father’s past actions. The pain his father endured, the sacrifices he made. “Sundays too my father got up early,” reveals that not only did his father get up early on Sundays, but every other day as well. The narrator’s father slaved away daily in the brutal weather, his hands “blueblack” with frostbite and “no one ever thanked him.” Not even his own son. For that, the son feels shameful and most of all, regretful. In addition to taking his father for granted, the son also spoke indifferently to his father. He treated his father like a stranger, just another human

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