A Literary Analysis Of Robert Hayden's 'Those Winter Sundays'

437 Words2 Pages

Shelby Whittle
April White
4th block
14 March 2017
Literary Analysis of Robert Hayden “Those Winter Sundays” Make decisions you won’t regret.The people that do the most for you often get overlooked and mistreated, and sometimes it is people you really love. Thank the people that do the most for you so later in life you won’t regret not thanking them. “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden expresses the regrets a child had after mistreating the father. The writer is always mentioning what all the father does for the child and the child’s family. The child’s father always woke up first and “with cracked hands that ached” went and made a fire so the child would be warm on “Those Winter Sundays.” Not only had the father “driven out the cold,” but he had also polished the child’s “good shoes.” The child never thanked the father, but instead the child spoke “indifferently” to him The figurative language Robert Hayden uses further expresses the regrets the child had after the child realized how horrible the father was treated. In every stanza of the …show more content…

Without the sound devices in “Those Winter Sundays,” you would not understand what the father went through for his child. When the speaker uses the onomatopoeia “cracked” you can infer that the father is a hard working man and he works long hours to support his child. You could also infer that the splintering sound, is the sound the cold floor makes as the dad walks across it. The speaker used the word “blueback,” which is a alliteration, to describe the coldness of the house. The sound devices in this poem make you really understand what the father went through and what the child regrets. If you make a mistake you regret, go back and make it right before it is too late. In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” expresses the importance of making decisions you won’t regret and also thank those that you