Analysis Of Those Winter Sundays

The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden creates a feeling of nostalgia from the narrator. However, this sense of reminiscence holds both positive and negative aspects and encourages a theme of actions creating more impact than words. The poem begins by recounting how the narrator’s father would get up early on Sunday mornings and “then with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze.” This shows the reader that the narrator’s father took care of those in the home by trying to ensure they had warmth in the mornings on Sundays. Furthermore, by telling the reader that the father had “hands that ached / from labor in the weekday,” it emphasizes that this was not particularly the easiest task for the narrator’s father to perform. However, after telling the reader that the fire was made, the line ends by saying “No one ever thanked him.” In doing so, this shows the reader that the other people in the home took this effort from the father for granted.

As the narrator fears “the chronic angers of that house,” it is likely that most of the week their father was very strict and orderly, but that the efforts made on Sunday mornings are likely used as a solace to attempt to make up for the strictness of the rest of the