Those Winter Sundays Poem - Essay Example

“Those Winter Sundays” “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is a short lyrical poem about love and regret wrapped up in the words of a son who broods over the memory of his father. The setting of the poem is of a cold Sunday morning and the action taking place is of a father stoking up the fireplace in his house in order to fight the bitter winter. The poet uses several figures of speech like metaphors and synesthesia to describe the enormity of cold in the speaker’s house. Hayden has beautifully contrasted the harshness of winter with the harshness of life.

It is on a cold Sunday morning that the speaker’s father is endeavoring to make the house warm for his family. This comparison of a cold winter day with the father’s endeavors contributes to the writer’s use of harsh imagery. The consonants are bravely spread out over the poem making it a powerfully illustration of love and fury. The poem is mixed with images contrasting a son’s journey of remembering his father’s actions that were completely overlooked in his childhood but now as a man, he recalls them with respect.

The poem presents the theme of love that is not returned and the theme of regret which the speaker feels after his father is no more.Robert Hayden has presented the love of a father for his child who does not care about the fact whether his son loves him in return for it or not. This unconditional love is explained as the father does not care about his own fatigue and he maneuvers to light up the fireplace to make the house warm for his family. The poet expresses the fact that this act of devotion of the father was driven by his love for his family as he sacrificed his own rest for the sake of his family’s comfort.

This is explained by the poet in these lines, “then with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.” These lines express the deep love of the father who did not care about his pain and suffering and his family’s comfort was his highest priority.The regret of the poet for not being thankful to his father has been explained in the poem as well. The poet explains that his father had faced many difficulties but despite of all his hardships, he wanted to make his family comfortable.

The poet regrets for not loving his father back in return and for not being grateful to him for the sacrifices he gave for his family. The poet feels sad when he remembers how he had been unmoved and uncaring to the efforts made by his father to express his love for his family. The last lines of the poem clearly depict the deep regret that the speaker holds. He says, “What did I know, what did I know/ of love’s austere and lonely offices?” These lines explain his grief for not understanding his father’s love and being insensitive and unthankful for the acts that the father had done for the family.

The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is very well written and explains the purest form of love that parents have for their children. Hayden has explained the absolute love that the father has for his child. He has explained this love by explaining that the father always considered the cosines of his family above anything else. The father did not care about the fact that whether he was loved back in return for his acts or not. The poet has also portrayed the theme of regret when the son feels sad for not being able to understand and return his father’s love.

Works CitedHayden, Robert.1966 “Those Winter Sundays” Poetry Foundation. 2011. Web. 25 March 2012.