"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden is an elegy and tribute written by a son to his loving and caring father remembering his many sacrifices made in taking care of him. The poem begins with an unknown speaker and his reminiscing of his father especially the time spent together on Sundays during winter.
The speaker states that his father woke up early even on Sundays, which is a holiday during winter. He put on his clothes in the cold and lit the fire. The speaker describes his father's hand as cracked and aching due to the laborious work he needed to undertake throughout the week. For all his devotion tot he family, he was never thanked or even acknowledged by anyone. The second stanza describes how the speaker woke up during the uncomfortable winter days. His father would call him when the room warmed up and he would slowly rise and dre3ss still unsettled by the cold. He specifically remembers how he'd speak indifferently to his father who was the reason for all the comfort as he even got the speaker's shoes polished and ready. He recalls with regret that he did not know any better of his father's endless and stern care for him that he carried out all by himself.
This place by Hayden is a heartwarming poem dedicated to the toils of a loving father, although a hint of remorse can be noted throughout the poem. It suggests that may be the father is no more and the poem is an expression f the things that was left to be said to the father. The portrait of the speaker's father is painted throughout the poem. At the very beginning it is stressed that he woke up early on Sundays too, to light the fires and warm the house. The weather is described as 'blueback cold' indicating the harshness and discomfort. The father is assuredly a blue collar worker by the description of his hands which are cracked and aching from the work that sustains the family. This adds another layer to his devotion to his family as the hardships endured by him is all for their sake.
The harshness of the cold is further heightened by the speaker describing it as splintering and breaking despite the care of his father who only woke his son when the room had warmed up. The speaker aludes to a feeling of regret as he describes his indifferent attitude towards all this sacrifice, of a person who had driven cold away. He laments that he did not know any better otherwise he would have and should have expressed gratitude. Instead he left his father alone in his toil directed towards ensuring his happiness and comfort.
The poem is retrospective in nature, featuring a speaker that is matured and can appreciate the sacrifices made by his father which he had overlooked in his younger days. This however does not show amiable and frank relationships but intrinsically focuses on little gestures of loving acts that accumulate overtime rather than frivolous grand gestures. Hayden frequently utilizes enjambments and caesura giving it a feel of overwhelming emotions by the speaker. He also stresses certain emotions for instance, "No one ever thanked him"(l.5). He also uses vivid imagery for example, the cold splintering, blueblack cold, cracked hands. Additionally he emphasizes on the harshness of the cold and his father's labors through metaphors such as "chronic angers" denoting cold and problems of the home and "banked fires" referring to the father's labor that provided for the family. Furthermore he emphasizes the harsh nature of the cold through consonance in "and put his clothes on in the blue-black cold"(l.2) and assonance in "and polished my good shoes as well"(l.12). The feeling of regret is also emphasized by the use of a refrain in line 13. The last line of the poem deploys a metaphor of "lonely offices" to denote the father's selfless and thankless devotion that he carried on for years without complain.
This poem is a perfect antithesis to Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz". While Roethke depicts a violent and deprecating relationship between a father and son, "Those Winter Sundays" presents a heartwarming tale of a devoted father's many sacrifices to provide for his family. Surprisingly both poems adopt different approaches in an ironic fashion. "Those Winter Sundays" is written in free verse and fluctuating meter while "My Papa's Waltz" has a fixed rhyme scheme and is written in iambic trimeter. This provides a melodic cadence to a rather dark tale while the free verse is supportive of overflowing emotions in Hayden's piece.
Furthermore, "My Papa's Waltz" can be termed as a satire as it describes the violent clashes as 'waltzing' i.e a kind of playful dance while Hayden is straightforward in presenting his emotions making it a sincere elegy. One similarity is that both fathers seem to be from working class but that is where the similarities end. In Roethke's poem the son is weirdly devoted to his father despite the violence while in Hayden's work the father is devoted but the son is apathetic and ungrateful.
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