Diction In Those Winter Sundays

Poet Robert Hayden, in his work, “Those Winter Sundays”, composed a poem that makes the reader feel as if they are a part of the story, by using imagery and diction. In this poem, diction and imagery are connected. Robert Hayden in the poem "Those Winter Sundays' uses imagery and diction to create a heart wrenching response in the reader, as the speaker in the poem reflects on the youthful memories he has of his father . It is the word choice that really makes the poem as visual as it is. In this poem there is a child and a father. The father wakes up early every morning to light the wood burning stove so that the house can warm up. The father is described to be a hard working man who does a lot, with very little reward. If the poem was written

Growing up in a household in the winter with a woodstove is something that this poem truly shows to the reader and in some cases causes the reader to feel nostalgia. Waking up to the sound of a fire is described when Hayden writes, “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking./ When the rooms were warm, he’d call, / and slowly I would rise and dress” (Hayden 6-8). With the description of the wood splintering and burning, the reader can almost hear the noises and smell what a the house would smell like. The way the character describes getting out of bed, is relatable as well. Readers who have had to get out of bed on a cold morning can picture exactly what is going on. The poem is not just about getting out of bed on a cold morning to that sound of a fire, there is a whole other story about the father. The father with his, “cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him” (Hayden 3-5). The image of a large rugged man automatically pops into most peoples heads when they think about a man with rugged hands starting a fire. It is not really specified in the poem what the father looks like, but it almost seems like he could be a tired office worker who is just trying to keep his family going. The idea of him being tired could be from the fact that he is described as never being thanked. A person who does everything for nothing but love, usually looks tired. The way the father is described is meant to make the reader think about the people who do stuff for them in life with no thanks. When the reader thinks about that, the might imagine the person who they never thank as the father in the