In the poem by Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” the author takes a retrospective look at his relationship with his father as a child …show more content…
In his poem he recounts not only his father’s but also his grandfather’s line of work and compares it to his own. The author writes with a clear sense of pride and respected at what both of them had accomplished and the work they both did: “By God, the old man could handle a spade. / Just like his old man.” (15-16) Not once in the poem does he look down at what they do, instead praising them for their hard work. What’s most interesting is the line: “Through living roots awaken in my head. / But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.” (27-28), which shows that even though he respects them he is taking a separate path from them and has chosen to become a writer instead. He has instead decided use the pen and “dig with it” (31), that even though he might not be in the field digging up the potatoes he has still decided to carry on the family tradition in one way or another. In his own way he will pay proper homage to those generations that came before him long after they are