"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden is a poem about a how the author is recalling how his father would wake up early on Sundays, a day which is usually a reserved as a day of rest by many, to fix a fire for his family. The mood of this poem is a bit sad. It portrays a father, who deeply cares for his family but doesn't seem to show it by emotions, words, or touching. It also describes a home that isn't very warm in feelings as well as the title" Those Winter Sundays" The author describes the father as being a hard worker, in the line "…with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday…", but still even on Sundays--the day of rest, the father works at home to make sure the house is warm for his family. The "blueblack cold described in the poem is now warmed by a father's love. This poem describes the author reminiscing what did not seem obvious at the time, the great love of his father, and the author's regretting to thank his father for all that he did.
Every parent in this world loves their children more than anything. Even the children can’t stay away from their parents for so long. Nothing in this world could be more precious than the love of a parent has for his/her children. Our parents are always with us no matter what happens. Often in life we make mistakes, but our parents give us supports and teach us to learn from those mistakes and move on with our lives. They also try to teach us from their experience. Parents always make sacrifices to provide for their family. In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Huges and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, the poets talk about how the parents are always making sacrifices to make their children’s life a little bit easier. Both of these poems reveal the struggle the parents go through in order to provide for their family.
“Those Winter Sundays” tells of Robert Hayden’s father and the cold mornings his father endures to keep his family warm in the winters. In “Digging” Heaney is sitting in the window watching his father do hard manual labor, which has taken a toll on his body. In “My Father as a Guitar” Espada goes to the doctors office with his father and is sitting in the office with his dad when the doctor tells him he has to take pain killers and to stop working because his body was growing old and weak. The authors of the poems all look at their fathers the same; they look at them with much respect and gratitude. All three poems tell of the hard work the dads have to do to keep their family fed and clothed. “The landlord, here a symbol of all the mainstream social institutions that hold authority over the working class” (Constantakis.) Espada’s father is growing old and his health is deteriorating quickly but his ability to stop working is not in his own hands, “I can’t the landlord won’t let me” (774.) “He is separated from the homeland, and his life in the United States is far from welcoming” (Constantakis.) Espada’s Grandmother dies in Puerto Rico and the family learns this by a lett...
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
The author begins the second chapter by recalling his father’s appearance. He describes his father as a “really fine looking man”. Continuing, he explains how his father “dressed carefully” so much that he even “put an open white handkerchief in his breast pocket”. Though in these descriptions he appears to have a positive, respectful attitude toward his father, he proceeds to mention numerous ways in the contrary. In one of the following paragraphs he makes the statement, “Nothing could ever persuade Father that he was anything but a naturally home-loving body – which, indeed, for a great part of the time, he was”. By saying this the author recognizes that his father thinks of
In Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, he recalls what his father did on every winter Sunday and how he treated his father in the childhood. By using vivid images and selective words, Hayden describes how his father expressed love to him and his regretting to how he treated his father.
Being a child, is one of the hardest stages of ones life. They go through doing all the wrongs in order to do the right, and they socially develop into a mature and sensible human being. During this stage of a young child's life, the roles of parenting are absolutely crucial. In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, I get a sense that the narrator does not have a special bond with his father, and that there is a sense of fear. I feel that in order to grow up and be a morally strong and stable person, you need a well-built relationship with at least one of you parents, if not both.
Many people don’t recognize others’ expressions of love. For instance, children may not realize that simple actions made by their parents are their parents’ way of saying “I love you.” In the poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden describes an adult who regrets not appreciating his father as a child, and who now has a better understanding of the challenging and occasionally lonely responsibilities of a parent. The way in which Hayden describes the father’s and the narrator’s actions, his use of K and hard C words, and his portrayal of love in the last line of the poem illuminate Hayden’s message that parents will do and sacrifice anything for their children out of love and, therefore, one should take time to appreciate them.
“The Winter Sundays” is a poem that sets an example for kids in our current generation that may not appreciation their parents or their families. Hayden’s poem is a common situation that anyone can experience. Lesson is that you should appreciate your parents and love ones before they are gone and you are left with the feeling of guilt. That guilt can and will weigh heavy on you because your dad or mom have always been there and sacrificed everything for your
Reading line after line, one can almost smell, hear, and even see everything the speaker says, “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (P. 677, line 6). When the speaker tells us that the father put his clothes on in the cold, I can almost feel the cold breeze hitting my body and hear the wind blowing, “and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,” (P. 677, line 2). One can experience the pain that the father went through as well; I can almost feel his dry and rough hands scratching my face, “then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made” (P. 677, lines
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” Robert Hayden expresses regret through this poem about his father. This poem is set when the speaker was a child which makes this poem older than from 1966. The poem is a reflection of his father years before. The speaker describes his father as a hard worker through the week and even on Sundays, which was a weekly routine. The speaker says, “Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, / then with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze” (Hayden lines 1-5). The speaker says, “Sundays too” (Hayden line 1) as if it were included like every other weekday. Traditionally, families rest and participate in other activities other than work on Sundays, but not the speaker’s father. His father worked hard no matter what state the weather was or his physical condition was, he had a family to care for, which was his objective.
Hayden first sympathizes with his father by saying, “Sundays too…” (line 1). His father made many sacrifices for him but, as a child, he was unable to recognize them. So, by saying, “too” he implies that his father must have gotten up early every single day as well to work or help his family around the home in any way possible. The poem’s meaning splits between what Hayden knew as a boy and his experiences gained growing up to become a man, and perhaps as a father now, too. In the first stanza, the audience is introduced to the
In analyzing poetry there has to be a connection between the author and the reader, in order to understand what the author is trying to express through his/her work. The reader’s needs to be able to read between the lines. Tone and mood help the reader identify what the poem is trying to convey. To do this we need to figure out who the speaker is, and the relationship the speaker has with his/her family. We will be depicting “Those Winter Sundays,” “Digging,” “Dusting,” and “My Grandmother Would Rock quietly and hum” searching for these qualities.
This is a unique poem on basis of the structure. It has a total of three stanzas and each of it consists of four lines. The poem does not have rhyme scheme and hence, it can be mistakenly taken to be a prose poem. Each line in the poem brings out various emotions expressed by the speaker and hence, the storyline is built up step by step.
The first gift Chris gave me was the full interpretation of responsibility. When Chris Gardner got abandoned by his wife and became an on-and-off-homeless salesman with a five-year old son, he didn’t mess up with life. I see a matured and brave man. Although tears already blurred his eyes, he hold tightly of his son and didn’t forget to tell him knock-knock jokes. He knows the art of being a good father. The fatherhood became Chris’s power sources and reason to carry on even when life collapse. I haven’t become a father, but I think being responsible is common to man in every age. It is man’s nature to be protective to persons h...