After reading "Those Winter Sundays"

Question

After reading "Those Winter Sundays"by Robert Hayden, 



1. Why does the poem begin with the words "On Sundays too" (rather than say, "On Sundays?"). Can you find any evidence of sound devices? (i.e. alliteration, consonance, assonance etc.).

2. Discuss briefly the speaker's feelings and if they shift (even subtly) and change throughout the poem.

3. How do you interpret "What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?"

Those Winter Sundays

BY ROBERT HAYDEN

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?

Answer 1

The first thing that the reader should ensure is that there is at least a basic understanding of what the text is saying. Review the annotations (notes) that you have taken while completing a first and second read of the text (make sure you have defined those unfamiliar terms!) 

Let’s address the questions prompts: 

1. The word “too” means additionally or also, by Hayden writing “Sundays too” it is allowing readers to understand that even on a day of rest, the speaker’s father is waking early. 

To find the sound devices that are present in the poem, review the definitions of the terms as needed and it will help to read the poem aloud to yourself. 

2. This is when your annotations really become useful! While annotating poetry, readers should at the least have a quick note summarizing each stanza. Use these annotations to identify the speaker’s feelings through out the poem. In stanza one, the speaker is describing the father’s actions and ends with “No one ever thanked him.” Review the descriptions that were used, “blueblack cold,” “cracked hands that ached,” “banked fires blaze.” The father is getting up so early in the morning that it’s still dark out, his hands are rough (readers can infer that he does hard manual labor), to build a fire that will warm the home. The father works all week and will still wake up to warm the home on Sunday, yet receives no thanks. How would we feel if we did all that and didn’t get thanks? I’d be frustrated! Since this is from the perspective of a child, they’re probably feeling a little remorseful that they didn’t realize this at the time. 

Continue on to stanza 2. The speaker is describing their morning now. They would hear the fire and then once the rooms were warm, they would hear their father call. Now as a child, there isn’t always a rush in the morning to wake up, so the speaker says, “and slowly I would rise and dress.” But ends on the line, “fearing the chronic angers of that house,” leading readers to think that maybe there’s more to why the speaker doesn’t wake up quickly to see his father. 

The final stanza, readers are able to see the relationship more clearly. The speaker feels “indifferent” towards their father, even though as they look back knows that their father was doing a lot for them. The speaker seems remorseful. 

3. Our final analysis of the stanza transitions into the last prompt which focuses on the final lines of the poem: “What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?”

Now, as a great annotator, on first read, you should have defined austere. You also should realize that office is not used in the normal context here. 

Let’s focus on the first line in question. Without even knowing the formal definitions of those two terms, using your knowledge of the full poem, readers are able to see that the speaker is looking back on their childhood and specifically their father. That’s where that remorseful tone and feeling comes in. So now if we’re looking back, we’re feeling bad (remorseful, regretful) we ask ourselves: What did I know then? I was just a kid. But let’s be poets! What did I know, what did I know of love!? I was a child that didn’t appreciate what my father did for me! 

Sometimes a parent’s love isn’t always warm and fuzzy, parent’s are strict on their children. And stereotypically father’s don’t always express their love outright. Their love can be austere. The speaker and their father aren’t close, it’s a lonely relationship. Their love is austere and empty during the speaker’s childhood.