Hayden centers the theme of the poem around his father, reminiscing about the hard labor his father endured, even on “blueblack cold” days, as he states in the second line of the poem. He expresses love and gratitude, which is also the theme, towards his father as he describes what, every Sunday, his father did. In the line, “… with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday labor made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him,” Hayden explains how, at the moment of action, his father was not appreciated. Of course, as a child appreciation is not always shown directly toward parents, yet in later years his love for his father grows as he realizes what his father went through just to provide for him and his family. The relationship
