It is simple in form but its elements work to support a theme that many can sympathize with and appreciate. Along with literally warming the house, the father was a servant who performed such mundane tasks as polishing his son’s shoes. Reciting this poem carefully and savoring every sound reveals the genius of the sonic patterning. Also, the evocative adjectives “austere and lonely” combined with the word “offices,” suggests a dutiful love at best, as the term “offices” carries a the secondary meaning of a monastic position in the Catholic Church. Taking the time away from work to attend church service might be untenable or perhaps irresponsible in the father’s eyes—acceptable for the rest of the family, but not for him. In lines two and three, Hayden uses harsh consonant sounds in the words "cold," "cracked," and "ached" to evoke the harshness of the speaker’s father’s life. The line “Fearing the chronic angers of that house,” he once again drops in the hard k motif and draws us back into the world of allusion, with the word “chronic” which is rooted in the Greek myth of Cronus, the patricidal son who then eats his own offspring for fear of their revolt. When I “hear” the poem, the first “What did I know?” (line 13)sounds almost like a throwaway line, a cliché. They could suggest petty quarreling or traumatic abuse. The repetition does provide emphasis. Instead, a slight pause between the two and a slower statement of the second give the line its impact. We feel like the speaker says the title with a big sigh. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. However, his use of the past tense and references to time (of day, week, and year) throughout the poem suggest that, over time, the speaker has reached a new vantage point and tenders perhaps a reluctant forgiveness for his father. The poem is in open form with no rhyme scheme. The poem “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden (whose name at birth was Asa Bundy Sheffey) explores a number of different themes. The stanza is then punctuated with a terse sentence describing a sore silence “No one thanked him,” which literally closes the mouth of the performer in a recitation. It is simple in form but its elements work to support a theme that many can sympathize with and appreciate. In the final stanza, the speaker’s actions become sonically connected to his father’s when he uses the initial verb “speaking.” Then the z, b, and k sounds associated with conflict are “driven out” by the tender images of his father “who had driven out the cold/and polished my good shoes as well.” This image captures the speaker’s guilt over his father’s self-sacrifice but also the source of the father’s fear and anger, subservience to his better- educated son. lines, an abundance of punctuation, and words are all things that may In doing so, he allows the reader to acknowledge the terrible sense of sadness and regret the speaker now feels. and diction which present the speaker’s feelings towards a certain topic. ( Log Out /  Like Christ, the father in Hayden’s poem has his own cross to bear in holding down a job and tending to an indifferent, uncaring child. Don't dance around the argument that you're making. In the poem, Sunday is significant for its religious implications. In the next four lines, Hayden uses alliteration and the dissonance of cacophony to intimate the father’s pain and the difficulty of his life: and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold. Tone: "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden Born and raised in a poor neighborhood in Detroit between his parents and a foster family next door, Robert Hayden wrote astounding poetry with his emotions. Hayden repeats the question "What did I know?" As Christ died on the cross for his children, the father labored and suffered to care for his child, and in neither of these instances did the children recognize the sacrifice until it was too late. The revolt indeed comes to pass after the birth of Zeus, who then rises to an exalted position. banked fires blaze. As an adult the speaker has come to understand what regretfully had escaped him as a boy. Robert Hayden And A Summary of Those Winter Sundays. He finishes by saying “what did I know of love’s austere”. Interestingly, Hayden does not explain the "chronic angers of that house." Short in Line 13. The way Hayden uses past tense verbs and describes the events with familiarity, but also thoughtfulness suggests that Robert Hayden is approaching these memories as an adult, reflecting upon actions. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden speaks on his father’s work in their home and how this shaped his relationship with his father. But one can speculate that the father is burdened by his low socioeconomic status. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays”, Robert Hayden speaks on his father’s work in their home and how this shaped his relationship with his father. He became the first black American to be appointed as the poet laureate to the Library of Congress. The poem’s attitudes or feelings How unfortunate it is that as children we are so often unable to comprehend "love’s austere and lonely offices." With allusions to several master narratives in the Western rhetorical tradition, controlled changes in rhythm, and highly patterned instances of consonance, Hayden examines the lives of these characters. This doesn’t necessarily suggest poverty, maybe only frugality. The title of the poem is appropriate in several ways. ( Log Out /  The word "offices" denotes a service done for another. It implies that the father’s life revolved around serving his son. Because the speaker fears the “chronic angers” (line 9) of the house, they must come from the family’s interpersonal relationships. And in the book of Genesis, Chapter 2, Verses 2 and 3, it is written that "He rested on the seventh day, and sanctified it. And those winter Sundays don’t exactly seem joyous. Each man performed his harsh service in the name of love. We are also happy to take questions and suggestions for future materials. 1. In this somewhat ominous image of his father stoking a fire, the consonance of the letter b and the consecutive stressed syllables decrease the pace of the rhythm, demanding a graver tone. Poem Analysis Per Stanza Analysis 1st Stanza: Father's Story 2nd Stanza: Son Interacts With His Father 3rd Stanza: Son Reflecting Back and Wishing He Had Appreciated His Father Structure 3 stanzas 5 lines, 4 lines, 5 lines No rhyme scheme First person Past tense Emotion Sundays Metaphor: "At the Hospital" by David Ferry, Speaker: "The Silence of Women" by Liz Rosenberg, Tone: "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. The father goes out to work in the harsh "weekday weather" to create a safe, warm environment for his child and to put a roof over his head. Building upon the same tensions found in this familiar story, the speaker shares bittersweet remembrances of Sunday mornings with his father, using descriptions that feature lumbering phrasal verbs such as “got up” and “put on.” In addition to a colloquial diction associated with the speaker’s father, the lines “from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze. Clicking a result will bring you directly to the content. In Line 9 Hayden uses metonymy by using "the house" to represent the people in it. This word choice reflects the coldness of their relationship. fearing the chronic angers of that house, (6-9). Born and raised in a poor neighborhood in Detroit between his parents and a foster family next door, Robert Hayden wrote astounding poetry with his emotions. 2. The family can’t afford to (or chooses not to) heat the house during the night; apparently their heat comes from a wood or coal stove. In the poem, ''Those Winter Sundays'' by Robert Hayden, the tone can be described as all of the following EXCEPT: This ties in with the religious elements of the poem in that the father was participating in the parental ritual of sacrificing one’s own happiness for that of one’s child. 3. As an adult remembering childhood events, the speaker has the luxury of subjective distance as well as the soft blur that often collects around such memories. Secondly, Hayden writes of "Winter Sundays" as opposed to warm, sunny summer ones. toward a theme are known as the tone; it is how the theme is presented In the poem, an adult speaker reflects on how, when he was a child, his father would get up early on Sunday mornings throughout the winter in order to light a fire and warm up the house before anyone else got out of bed. While describing his childhood with his father, Hayden conveys a tone of solemn pensivity. In the last stanza, Hayden confirms this by mentioning how he acted “indifferently” towards his father, who had loved his son through his actions rather than his words. Beginning with the word “Sundays,” Hayden makes the first of several references to Christianity, conjuring images of a resurrected son, sacrificed by his own father. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Those Winter Sundays is a poem about a memory. Change ), To Be Free or Not To Be: Freedom of Choice in a Gileadian World. The second stanza is dedicated to the speaker’s feelings and his view of his life at that time. The speaker’s anger and guilt smolder in the first two stanzas. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The past tense gives the poem a tone of reminiscence and regret. Woken by the very sounds associated with his father, the speaker hears “cold, splintering, breaking” in the next stanza.

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