Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden - 1152 Words

Robert Hayden’s 1966 poem entitled â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† is a seemingly superficial illustration of a typical Sunday morning in the narrator’s childhood home. The short length of the poem, along with the use of straightforward diction, however, conceals the darker subject matter that the author is trying to convey. The poem describes the narrator’s regret, in hindsight, that he did not recognize or appreciate his father’s love during childhood. Through his strategic use of punctuation, specific diction, and symbolic structure, Robert Hayden, in his poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays,† reflects on a strained and regretfully underappreciated relationship between father and son. One of the first points to note is that Hayden utilizes punctuation†¦show more content†¦He uses the word â€Å"blueblack† to describe the color of the sky in the early morning and to draw attention to just how early it was. The line that says â€Å"with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (3) implies that the author’s father had an outdoor job involving heavy labor. Lastly, when the author writes, â€Å"banked fires blaze,† he is referencing how the father started the fire before everyone else woke up, so that they wouldn’t be cold. All of this language points to the idea that the father in the poem worked very hard for the comfort of the others. The second stanza, however, enables the reader to empathize with the son, as the author uses language that suggests that there is more to the story than a hard-working father and an unappreciative child. The speaker notes that he †wakes to hear the cold, splintering breaking† (6). This sounds oddly negative, considering the sacrifice from the father that is described just before. The house is becoming warmer, so it might be assumed that the narrator would be happy. However, he seems to associate the temperature with something negative. The speaker says, â€Å"slowly I would rise and dress† (8).On the surface, this description seems to point to the luxury of the son’s situation; he is allowed to get dressed at his leisure while his father is hard at work.Show MoreRelated`` Those Winter Sundays `` By Robert Hayden1408 Words   |  6 Pagesa postmodern poet, yet Robert Hayden did just that in his poem, â€Å"Those Winter Sundays.† The poet utilizes his own alienation as a tool to reveal an insider’s view on the issues of his time. Robert Hayden was born in a poor suburb outside Detroit on August 4, 1913. His name at birth was Asa Bundy Sheffey. He was raised, however, as Robert Hayden, the name given by his foster parents. Hayden’s foster parents happened to live across the street from where Hayden was born. Hayden did not discover the storyRead MoreAn Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden1245 Words   |  5 Pagesthings lead people to misunderstand each other. â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† is a poem written by Robert Hayden in 1962. In the poem, the speaker remembers his past experiences with this father as it describes the typical winter Sundays for the protagonist . The poem illustrates the broken relationship between the speaker and the father, without saying it directly, but instead through the way the poem is formatted. In the poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, Robert Hayden exposes a broken relationship due to understandingRead More`` Those Winter Sundays `` By Robert Hayd en908 Words   |  4 Pagestheir fathers in one way as a child and grow to see them in a whole different light as adults. The richness and complexity of the child and father relationship are the reason many poets write about fatherhood and fathers. The poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† by Robert Hayden is an interesting poem. This poem tells of an adult’s perspective of his father. From the poem, it is clear that there is the distance between the child and the father and inadequate communication. However, at the end of the poemRead MoreThose Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden2045 Words   |  9 PagesThose Winter Sundays In â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, Robert Hayden introduces us to the theme of love unlike in any other poems. The theme of love in this poem is different from any other contemporary love themes because here, Hayden doesn’t talk about the amorously affectionate emotion between young lovers like Romeo and Juliet, but the deep familial love between a parent and a child. This kind of love is not pretentious. Their love is not exhibited by kisses or hugs; while it may go unnoticed it isRead MoreThose Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden611 Words   |  2 PagesPoets and Their Fathers â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† by Robert Hayden, â€Å"My Father as a Guitar† by Martin Espada, and â€Å"Digging† by Seamus Heaney are three poems that look into the past of the authors and dig up memories of the authors fathers. The poems contain similar conflicts, settings, and themes that are essential in helping the reader understand the heartfelt feelings the authors have for their fathers. With the authors of the three poems all living the gust of their life in the 1900’s, their biographicalRead More Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Essay633 Words   |  3 PagesThose Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Those winter Sundays written by Robert Hayden is a poem to ponder for a while. The poem may look simple, but analyzing it deeply shows that is a complicated one with a well-defined sentiment of no appreciation and sorrow towards his father. These sentiments will change to the end of the poem. Also, the poem can be understood in various ways: one way could be a positive feeling from the writer towards his father or the otherRead MoreThose Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Essay713 Words   |  3 PagesThose Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden tells about a child’s indifferent relationship with his father. The poem explains all of the things the father did for his child without being asked or thanked. It then jumps to the child’s point of view and tells what they say as a child as to what they see now as an adult looking back. The child, who is now grown, shows signs of regret as he looks back at how he treated his father, who sounds to have passed away. Finally, in the final lines the speaker realizesRead MoreAnalysis Of Robert Hayden s Those Winter Sundays 937 Words   |  4 Pagesselfless best describes the father in Robert Hayden’s, â€Å"Those Winter Sundays†, as well as mine. Because of this I decided to write my first paper for this class about the relationship between a father and son. Before taking this class I was never able to relate to a poem quite like this one. Especially when it comes to how hard a good parent is willing work to provide for their family. How despite the fact that my Father, much like the father mentioned in Robert Hayden’s poem, did not receive the recognitionRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden858 Words   |  4 Pageshostility towards a child transformed into abhorrence regarding the parents. In â€Å"Those Winter Sundays,† Robert Hayden displays the unconditional hidden love and ingratitude through a distant, strained father-son relationship by the usage of characterization through imagery. The lyric poem is a remorseful coming of age story of a young adult with a  sudden reminiscence of his childhood relationship with his father.    Hayden decorates the poem with symbolism to portray the hidden love and sentiments possessedRead MoreThose Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden And Magic Of Love957 Words   |  4 Pages People have different perceptions and ways to show love. In the poems â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† by Robert Hayden and â€Å"Magic of Love† by Helen Ferries, the poets describe love in two different ways. These two poems have differences and similarities. Both poems have the same theme which is love; however, they have different uses of imagery and dissimilar tones. The first poem â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† defines the meaning of love and describes the love the son has for his father s; on the other hand, the