Poem Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden

In the poem “Those Winter Sundays” Robert Hayden talks about his childhood and specifically about his relationship with his father as a child. Hayden’s father is shown to be a hard working man, with “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather” who woke up early, even on Sundays, to light the fire and warm the house. The poem focuses on how nobody ever thanked him for his efforts, and how now as an older person Hayden truly understands the depth and complexity of parental love.
The title itself reveals the purpose of the poem, giving us the impression that it shall focus on ‘those winter Sundays’ of Hayden’s childhood. The poem is fairly short with five lines in the first stanza, four in the second and five again in the last stanza. Since most of the action in any piece of writing takes place in the middle, a reader is given the impression that not much shall take place or change throughout the duration of the poem. However, the long last stanza emphasizes that the poet has a lot to reflect upon after the events in the poem have taken place. Through the use of blunt sentence choice such as ‘no one ever thanked him’ and ‘speaking indifferently to him’ the purpose of the content can be derived quickly: Hayden is describing the lack of gratitude he displayed …show more content…
The cold is described as “blueblack,” two colors usually used to describe a sad or depressing mood. Blueblack can also describe the color of the sky before the sun has risen on winter nights. His father’s hands are described as “cracked,” which gives the impression of hands worn out or beaten down after long periods of tough labor. The phrase “no one ever thanked him” emphasizes the isolation the father must have felt from receiving no acknowledgment for his efforts. Therefore, we are given the image of a battered old man providing the household with light in the midst of darkness, all