Winter Sundays

Well 6 down 4 more to go ! bring on the late night and tea on a winter sunday! This Poem Those Winter sundays by Robert Hayden is a really good example of what kids this day and age do and act towards their parents. Most kids don't every think twice about saying thank you, i love you, i really appreciate everything you've done for me etc. Before you know it, its already to late you never know when someones going to leave this earth and you should always tell people the way you feel and just remind them that you appreciate the way they treat you and go out of their way for you. That wasn't possible for the Hayden to do though, by the time he realized how great and how much love his father had for him he was gone. "Sundays too my father got up early\ and put his clothes on in the blublack cold,/the with cracked hands that ached\from labour in the weekday weather made\ banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him." this is the first stanza in the poem, it lets the readers know exactly whats happening . The father gets up on his only day off to mend the fire and get the house warm for a family, not once in the poem is a mother mentioned so he could have been an only father whom is going out of his way to make sure his child doesn't get cold even polishes his shoes on the one day that he could take a break from his hard working job. The speaker is looking back on his childhood and is realizing that his regrets are so large, for not ever taking the time to thank his father for everything he ever done. The tone in this poem is obviously sadness and regret for something that will never be able to be cleaned from the authors conscience, he knows he has done wrong and has regrets for not thanking his father but theres no way to go back now and he wishes to go back to when he was a child so he could just appreciate it."What did i know,what did i know\ of loves austere and lonely offices" Hayden is just telling his readers he wasn't yet mature enough to understand what his dear father was doing for him, its part of the themes parent child relationships, love an loss, and youth an maturity all of these themes are evident in this poem. So if you have learned anything from this poem it should be to not take your loved ones for granted and to cherish your parents and acknowledge the little thing they do for you.


Those Winter Sundays

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. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?