Those Winter Sundays
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack 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?
“Those Winter Sundays” is an appropriate title which prompts the reader’s recollection of past winter Sundays. The images that engage the reader are of winter Sundays that are quiet, lazy, and filled with opportunities to sleep late. Sunday was a day of being with your family and catching up on chores around the house. The tone Hayden created in this poem is one of “I wish I could do it all over again.”
The speaker begins the poem with a declarative image that tells us a great deal about his father. “Sundays too my father got up early/and put his clothes on in the blueback cold,” the reader becomes aware that even though the speaker’s father worked all week, he never rested on Sundays. As a matter of fact, The speaker conjures up the image of the father arising before anyone else and getting dress in temperatures that could cause frostbite. Hayden proceeds, “then with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/banked fires blaze.” This verse connotes the father’s hands being made coarse by hard work in the blistering cold. Hayden’s use of words such as “banked fires blaze” helps the reader visualize the father throwing more firewood into the fire to make it brighter. No one ever thanked him.” Here the reader learns of how the speaker and other family members took the father for granted. We can begin to feel the speaker’s regret of not having thanked his father personally.
“I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.” the speaker is awakened by the sound of the wood submitting to the blasting cold. Hayden writes “When the rooms were warm, he’d call,/ and slowly I would rise and dress,” these lines are self explanatory of the speaker’s actions in response to his father’s call. The next line “fearing the chronic angers of that house,” brings to the reader’s attention the speaker’s fear of encountering the habitually hostile feelings of the other family members who live in the house.
“Speaking indifferently to him,” this is the moment where the reader is informed of the heartless attitude the speaker had towards his father in the past. The father who was so considerate to make the house warm and and polished the speaker’s shoes. It concludes with “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” the speaker acknowledges his ignorance in dealing with his father’s thoughtful ways. He is finally aware of how love can be dealt with harshness and at times be unrewarded.
Hayden’s poem brings the reader’s unconscious thoughts of past Sundays to unite with the rational mind of the poem he is reading. The reader can feel the speaker’s regret. Through Hayden’s descriptive images, the reader makes the speaker’s images his own. Hayden’s us of synonyms in line 5 “fires blaze.” and line 6 “splintering, breaking,” intensify the action taking place in the reader’s imagination.
Bibliography
Rampersad,Arnold,ed. The Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry. “Those Winter Sundays”: 261. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2006.
Lehman,David,ed. The Oxford Book of American Poetry. “Those Winter Sundays”: 581, New York: Oxford University
Press, 2006.
