Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

Those Winter Sundays

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?

Directions: Try to answer each question as if you were writing a mini essay (at least a paragraph for each question). Use detailed examples (quotes from the poem to support your response.

1. Summarize in your own words the events that are taking place in this poem. Use a dictionary to define words that are unfamiliar to you.

2. What does the attitude of the child (speaker) toward the father reveal about the tone of this poem? (For example, do the father and child love each other? What words or phrases lead you to these conclusions?)

3. List the images in the poem that relate to cold. Apply these images to relationships that you have experienced. (For example, what might winter symbolize with respect to the child/father relationship? What might a warm fire symbolize with respect to their relationship?)

4. What is happening in this poem from the viewpoint of the child? from the father?

5. What lesson in life can be learned from the relationship that is portrayed in this poem? Relate this poem to similar experiences in your own life?