Those Winter Sundays Analysis Essay

The poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden is about an adult reflecting on his childhood relationship with his Father. The speaker in the poem describes a normal “Winter Sunday” in his childhood. Using primarily imagery and tone, Hayden reveals the speaker’s feelings towards his relationship with his Father, which is described as “cold,” but in the end, the speaker reveals he was blind to how his Father showed affection.

In the first stanza, Hayden uses an allusion and images to suggest the sacrifices of the Father. For example, Hayden uses “Sundays too” as a way to reveal one of the sacrifices. The phrase “Sundays too” is an allusion to the Bible’s day of Sabbath, which is Sunday and known as a day of rest. This displays one of the

This acknowledgment displays the speaker showing regret for his treatment towards his Father as a child, which is suggested in the line, “Speaking indifferently to him” (Hayden 10). In these lines, the speaker shows his realization of how his Father showed love. The speaker understood that even though there was an emotional distance between himself and his Father, it did not mean there was not love. In the last two lines, the speaker returns from the flashback to reflect on his relationship with his Father. This reflection emphasizes the speaker’s regretful tone through the repeating of the phrase, “What did I know” (Hayden 13). This phrase reflects that he now understands that he did not know anything as a child, and he especially knew nothing about love. These last two lines show his newfound recognition that he knows much more about his Father’s love than he did when he was a child. As the last line states, “What did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices” (Hayden 13-14), the speaker reveals that love is not always hugs and kisses, but that love is waking up in the “blueblack cold” to warm the house for the