"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

Author's Biography

Robert Hayden was an African American poet who was born in 1913 and died in 1980. He was a poet and a professor. Hayden studied poetry at the University of Michigan, and went on to teaching at both Michigan University and Fisk University. Hayden continued to write and publish poetry, becoming one of the nation's foremost African-American poets.

"Those Winter Sundays"

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueback 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?

The speaker's tone is very nostolgic, sorrowful, and regretful. The speaker recalls all the wonderful things his father did for him and all the times he never even thanked him. The speaker uses powerful imagery such as putting his clothes on in the "blackblue cold" and his "cracked hands that ached from labor". He regrets not taking the time to notice all the generous things his father did for him and the all the hard work he did around the house to provide for his family. You can hear the regret in the speaker's voice when he calls out "What did I know, what did I know". The speaker even bluntly acknowledges the fact that "No one ever thanked him". The tone is nostalgic because you can feel the despair as he reminisces on the memories of his dad getting up early every morning and working hard until sun down. In the first line when the speaker says, "Sundays too", he is implying that even on the day that is commonly put aside as a day of rest, his father still got up early and selflessly got to work. 

This poem’s tone has affected me in certain ways. It has forced me to really think about my relationship with my father and to reflect on how often I take the time to recognize all the work my father puts in to provide for his family. The speaker, also the son, is revealing the regret and despair he feels through the sorrowful attitude he displays through the intense imagery and the questions he asks himself.