The poem Those Winter Sundays - Essay Example

Now, he recalls that his father had ‘cracked hands’ that ‘ached from labor’ but at that time, what the poet as a child felt towards his father was ‘fear’ and ‘indifference’. He acknowledges that he feared the ‘chronic anger’ of the house, indicating how calamitous his family situation was. Probably because of the anger, what the poet as a child felt was fear and indifference, and he failed to understand the ‘austere’ and ‘lonely’ love and care. However, now, as an adult, the poet realizes that as a child, it was rather impossible to know the hidden treasures of love.

In other words, the poet did not know that love and care could be that ‘austere’. In the poem, the poet has portrayed how parents suffer in silence to keep everything comfortable for their children and how children fail to see, neglect or do not acknowledge the pains taken by their parents to raise them. For example, the father in the poem is equipped with ‘blue-black cold’, ‘cracked hands’, ‘ache’ from ‘labor’, ‘cold splintering’ and so on. However, what he preserves and ensures for his child is warm room, and polished shoes.

The poem is highly symbolic in nature. Parents take all the pains to bring up their children evidently understanding the fact that the children are to go without saying a word of thanks. This is the reason that makes parents keep the shoes of the child polished. Even when the child does not acknowledge their efforts, they do not give up serving the child. The child fails to recognize the love and care and is more aware about the chronic angers of the house that frighten him. Admittedly, the theme was almost the same throughout human history and it will remain the same ahead too.

For example, there are a lot many things children take for granted. A child is rarely aware about the struggles and hardships involved in bring him up; regular supply of food, clothes, shelter, medicines, education, and entertainment, to mention but a few. However, despite all these basic things that evidently show parents’ love and care, one can see a kid getting angry and claiming that his parents do not love him as they do not allow him to play computer games for extra hours, another kid claiming that his parents are arrogant and rude because they scold him for not doing his homework, and some other kids angry with their parents for strictly making them do household chores.

In yet another instance, one can see a child insisting that he will only eat his favorite noodles throwing away the food his mother has prepared. This child fails to understand the hard work involved in ensuring regular supply of food on the dining table. Evidently, a child’s life is a total exploitation of his parents’ life for which parents get nothing in return. Admittedly, Robert Hayden is portraying the very same picture in his Those Winter Sundays. The father in the poem does not wait for, or does not seem anticipating, a word of thanks from his child.

Father goes on doing his duty. He gets up early even on Sunday as usual, and does everything he can for his child. Robert Hayden is providing the picture that parents consider caring their children as their duty, and despite the hardships and sufferings in their own life, they give maximum comfort to their children without