The Full Text of “Those Winter Sundays”
The Full Text of “Those Winter Sundays”
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Introduction
-
"Those Winter Sundays" is a poem by Robert Hayden written in 1962. In the poem, an adult speaker reflects on how, when he was a child, his father would get up early on Sunday mornings throughout the winter in order to light a fire and warm up the house before anyone else got out of bed. At the time the speaker failed to appreciate this, as well as the other ways his father expressed affection for his family. Only upon looking back at these memories as an adult does he understand the often selfless and thankless nature of love.
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Summary
-
My father would also wake up early on Sunday mornings and get dressed in the freezing cold. With his rough, aching hands—worn from his job as a manual laborer who worked outside—he would light fires in the house. None of us ever said thank you to him for doing this.
Soon after, I'd wake up and hear the walls and floorboards creaking as the cold left them. Once the house was all warmed up, my father would call me down. I'd get out of bed and get dressed slowly, afraid of getting wrapped in the constant tensions in that house.
I was detached and distant when I talked to my father, even though he was the one who'd conquered the cold and polished my shoes for me too. I didn't know back then, I didn't know how tough and isolating it was to be a loving father.
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Themes
-
Family and Parenting
“Those Winter Sundays” is a deceptively simple poem that highlights the sacrifices—often unseen—that parents make for their children. Written from an adult perspective, the poem sees the speaker reflecting on the parenting style of his father. He realizes that his father made sacrifices for him without expecting anything return, acting only out of love for his family. The poem thus presents parenting as selfless and often thankless work.
The family dynamic between the father and son in “Those Winter Sundays” is not especially warm, open, or close. But, the poem argues, this doesn’t mean that the father isn’t utterly devoted to his son’s welfare. Familial love, as the speaker realizes in adulthood, can show itself in small gestures that may go unperceived by children as they grow up.
To that end, the poem paints a vivid picture of the speaker’s father as a man with a strong sense of familial duty. On Sundays (traditionally a day of rest), the father is always the first to rise. On these harsh winter mornings, he gets up early—even though he is tired from his week of hard work outside—to light a fire and bring warmth to the house. The fact that he does this on Sundays “too” implies that he does this during the rest of the week as well. He makes this regular sacrifice in order to make his family more comfortable. This humble ritual suggests the presence of emotional warmth, even if it might not be clearly expressed in words. Indeed, as the speaker confesses, “no one ever thank[s]” the father.
Furthermore, suggests the poem, this is just one among many selfless acts that the father performs for his son. Not only does the father “drive[] out the cold,” but he also polishes his son’s best shoes. Parenting, implies the poem, is in part a series of small but endless tasks, most of which go unnoticed by the very person for whose benefit they are done.
It’s important to note, however, that the poem doesn’t overly sentimentalize or oversimplify its subject matter. Indeed, the suggestion of the presence of “chronic angers” in the house suggests that times were often difficult too (though the speaker doesn’t flesh out any specifics). Parents don't have to be perfect to be good parents, the poem implies, though sometimes familial tensions can prevent children from recognizing how much their parents still do for them.
Ultimately, the speaker feels that his father didn’t really get the appreciation that he deserved at this time—and that this is often true of parenting. That’s why the poem widens its scope in its closing rhetorical question, asking “what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” This mention of love is more general, rather than being specifically tied solely to the speaker’s father. This question characters the responsibilities of a parent as a kind of work (offices can mean services or duty), one that often goes unappreciated. That’s why it’s “lonely” work—and it’s “austere” because it’s sometimes hard. Implicitly, then, the poem becomes a subtle argument in favor of appreciating—and showing appreciation—for your parents. And, indeed, for showing that appreciation before it’s too late do so.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-14
-
Growing Up and Memory
“Those Winter Sundays” explores the way that the experiences of childhood can seem different when looked back on from an adult perspective. In revisiting childhood memories, the poem implies, adults can see and understand what they didn’t realize at the time.
The poem is told entirely in the past tense, situating it firmly in the speaker’s memory as he realizes—not without a tinge of regret—that as a child he was ignorant of the subtle ways in which his father took care of him. For example, the speaker recalls the way his father would heat the house on cold Sunday mornings and polish the speaker’s “good shoes.” But the speaker didn’t really appreciate any of this. He never thanked his father, and usually spoke “indifferently” to him. He'd also linger in bed to avoid getting caught up in any family tensions, suggesting how, to his child's mind, family fights were more memorable than acts of love.
Basically, the speaker realizes from his adult perspective that he took his father for granted. Now in adulthood, the speaker more fully understands what it means to make sacrifices for others. Now, he can look back on his childhood and perceive the way that his father was fulfilling “love’s austere and lonely offices” (“offices” can mean duties or services). Implicit in this phrase is the idea that it takes becoming an adult to learn these “austere and lonely offices”—most children can’t fully appreciate their parents because they haven’t had to be responsible yet for another human being. “Those Winter Sundays,” then, has a kind of sadness to it that is equal parts nostalgic and regretful. The speaker knows he can’t go back and show his appreciation, but that he can at least record it in the words of this poem.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2
- Line 5
- Lines 6-10
- Lines 11-14
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Those Winter Sundays”
-
Lines 1-2
Sundays too my ...
... the blueblack cold,The poem immediately establishes itself as a memory, the title and the first word—"Sundays too"—indicating that what follows describes something that would occur regularly. These are general "winter Sundays," a fixture throughout the speaker's childhood. The focus on the father from the beginning also signals that this is a poem about family, and in particular the speaker's relationship with his father.
The second word of the poem, though humble and small, is very significant (and shows Hayden's skill with language). The "too" puts the memory that follows into context, telling the reader that the speaker's father would get up early to heat the house on the other days of the week as well. The father's routine, then, begins pretty much the same every day—with an act of dutiful sacrifice, braving the cold of the house in order to get it warm for the other family members. Already by the end of the first line a picture emerges of the father as a dedicated man who is also somewhat isolated. The enjambment at the end of line 1 ("early / and put ...") leaves the phrase feeling a little exposed, mirroring how the father is a lone figure in the early hours of the morning.
Line 2 then gives the reader a sense of just how cold the house used to be. In what is otherwise a linguistically sparse and spare poem, the speaker describes the cold as "blueblack." This unusual adjective applies color to something that is usually only felt, suggesting the biting intensity of the cold. It also suggests that the father rises so early that it is still dark, which contrasts with the speaker still enjoying his sleep in bed. The adjective also perhaps recalls the coloring of a bruise, emphasizing the almost physical brutality of the winter weather. Finally, the /l/ and /k/ consonance that runs throughout—"clothes on in the blueblack cold"—gently dominates the line. This perhaps helps convey how the winter cold has its grip firmly on the entire house.
-
Lines 3-5
then with cracked ...
... ever thanked him. -
Lines 6-9
I’d wake and ...
... of that house, -
Lines 10-12
Speaking indifferently to ...
... shoes as well. -
Lines 13-14
What did I ...
... and lonely offices?
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Symbols
-
Fire
As the title suggests, this poem is situated (through memory) in winter. This brings with it a brutal, almost bruising ("blueblack") cold. The speaker's father dutifully rises before anyone else in the house in order to light fires and make the house warmer. But the poem is primarily concerned with a different kind of coldness/warmth: emotional. Throughout, the references to fire represent the father's love for and dedication to his family.
The speaker recognizes that the relationship between himself as a child and his father was distant and thus cold—the speaker didn't appreciate the sacrifices that his father made for him. Likewise, perhaps the speaker's father lacked the emotional language to express this love to his son at the time, instead expressing affection through actions like lighting fires to warm up the house. In lighting these the fires, the father drives out the cold and replaces it with a literal and symbolic kind of warmth. This creates (relative) comfort and safety for the child speaker, which he didn't even really notice at the time. Looking back now, though, the speaker can read in the fires lit by his father the evidence of a deep-seated emotional warmth, one which was no less real for having been hard to notice.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 5: “banked fires blaze”
- Line 6: “the cold splintering, breaking”
- Line 7: “the rooms were warm”
- Line 11: “driven out the cold”
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Alliteration
Alliteration is a subtle but important presence in "Those Winter Sundays." It's first used in lines 2 and 3, with the harsh /k/ sounds in "clothes," "cold," and "cracking." This sound is even more prevalent in these lines when considering consonance more generally; overall, it's a biting sound that suggests the harshness of the crackling, aching cold.
Later, in line 4, the two /w/ sounds in "weekday weather" create a sense of routine drudgery, conveying the way that the speaker's father has to work hard every day of the week. The next example is in line 5 with "banked fires blaze." The alliteration has a bright, bouncy sound that adds emphasis to the phrase and suggests the sheer strength of this blazing fire.
Once the fire is lit, the poem uses warmer sounding consonants. This is most prominent in the alliteration of line 7, with three /w/ sounds one after another:
When the rooms were warm
The /w/ sound here infuses the line itself with this sense of warmth.
The poem has one further instance of alliteration in the final line (quoted with the preceding line for context):
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?The two /l/ sounds here conceptually link "love" with being "lonely." This is an important moment because it's part of the way that the speaker, now thinking about his father from the vantage point of adulthood (as opposed to the "indifferent" view of childhood), reconsiders the way his father showed his love. In other words, his father's love was expressed in the way that he carried out his duties and responsibilities—and lack of appreciation at the time made the father into a fairly solitary figure.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “c,” “c”
- Line 3: “c”
- Line 4: “w,” “w”
- Line 5: “b,” “b”
- Line 7: “W,” “w,” “w”
- Line 14: “l,” “l”
-
Assonance
-
Caesura
-
Consonance
-
End-Stopped Line
-
Enjambment
-
Epizeuxis
-
Rhetorical Question
-
-
"Those Winter Sundays" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Blueblack
- Banked
- Chronic
- Indifferently
- Austere
- Offices
-
(Location in poem: Line 2: “blueblack”)
A kind of deep black color with a hint of blue. The colors are also associated with bruises, emphasizing the brutality of the winter cold.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Those Winter Sundays”
-
Form
"Those Winter Sundays" is made up of two quintets sandwiching a quatrain (that is, the first and third stanza have five lines apiece, while the second stanza has only four lines). This structure doesn't follow a specific form, though the total amount of lines—fourteen—echoes the structure of a sonnet. Indeed, sonnets are often about love; this poem is about love too, but specifically about how it can be difficult to show or perceive. Perhaps, then, the poem's form is meant as a subtle gesture towards the sonnet in order to highlight how the speaker can't go back and show his father the appreciation that he now feels his father truly deserved.
The poem is told entirely in the past tense, focusing on one particular (but general) memory from the speaker's childhood. The speaker's father cuts an isolated figure throughout the poem, getting on with his tasks without thanks or appreciation. The poem uses plain language throughout, but surprises the reader by ending with a rhetorical question. This implicitly suggests the way that the speaker has come to reconsider the nature of his father's love—to see that it really was there, and that it was the motivation behind his father's sense of duty and responsibility,
-
Meter
"Those Winter Sundays" doesn't use a strict regular meter. Instead, it's written in free verse—which fits with its conversational, plain tone. That said, most lines are around 10 syllables in length. Coupled with the fact that the poem itself is 14 lines long—the length of a sonnet—the line lengths again very subtly recall the sonnet form (usually written in iambic pentameter, a meter with 10-syllable lines).
The gesture towards the sonnet form helps suggest that the poem is about love (often a sonnet topic), but the way in which this is not fully realized helps tease out the meaning of the poem. That is, this poem is about love that is somehow frustrated, suppressed, or unnoticed. So it's nearly a sonnet—but it's easy to miss this aspect of the form (just as it's easy in life to under-appreciate a parent's love, for example).
-
Rhyme Scheme
"Those Winter Sundays" is written in free verse, and as such it does not have a rhyme scheme. The poem's general tone is simple and matter-of-fact, and perhaps a noticeable rhyme scheme would be too distracting, too "poetic." There is one internal rhyme though, found in line 5:
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
This rhyme creates an ironic link between the fires that the father used to make and the thanks that he should have received for doing so (at least in the adult speaker's opinion).
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Speaker
-
The speaker an adult reflecting on his past, and appears to regret not appreciating the sacrifices his father made for him as a child. Little is learned about the specifics of the speaker's identity, however. We've used male pronouns for clarity throughout this guide and because the speaker is often associated with the poet himself, Robert Hayden, who has in fact said that it is autobiographical. That said, it's certainly not necessary to assume that the speaker is male.
Regardless, the poem is essentially a discussion between two different moments in this person's life. Written from a first-person perspective, the speaker reflects on childhood from the vantage point of adulthood. Looking back, the speaker realizes that his father loved and took care of him, but that he failed to see this at the time. Perhaps himself now aware of "love's austere and lonely offices"—maybe he has become a parent in the intervening years—the adult speaker is now capable of interpreting his father's quiet and dutiful routines as a way of looking after the family. But the speaker avoids oversimplifying or sentimentalizing this reappraisal, also hinting at the "chronic angers" that filled the house alongside love.
-
-
“Those Winter Sundays” Setting
-
On one level, the poem takes place inside the speaker's childhood home on a frigid Sunday morning in winter. This day is not especially different—for the father at least—than most other days. It's one in which the father rises early to light a fire, but he does that on these days "too." The first stanza creates an atmosphere of those regular cold mornings, using harsh consonants to give the reader a sense of the "blueblack cold" (we talk more about this in the "Poetic Devices" section of this guide).
Since the speaker is relating this poem from the present moment as an adult, the poem can also be thought of as being set in the speaker's memory. And the poem's concluding question makes the speaker's memory feel distant. Perhaps the father is no longer around, making it too late for the speaker to show him this newfound appreciation. An important part of the setting, then, is the tension between two different points in time.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Those Winter Sundays”
-
Literary Context
Robert Hayden was an American poet who lived from 1913 to 1980. He was born in Detroit, and was raised not by his biological parents but by nearby neighbors. (Indeed, Hayden was given his name by them, having been born Asa Bundy Sheffy.) Hayden's upbringing was tough, and his childhood home was often fraught with violence and anger. In fact, Hayden makes clear in his own reading of this poem that he sees this poem—with its allusion to "chronic angers"—as autobiographical (this reading appears in the Resources section of the guide).
Books were a form of solace for Hayden, who was also bullied for having bad eyesight. He studied at the University of Michigan, reading Spanish and English and finding common ground in the works of Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes ("I, Too"; "Mother to Son") and Countee Cullen. W.H. Auden ("Funeral Blues") and W.B. Yeats ("The Wild Swans at Coole") were also important influences on Hayden's poetry. Indeed, Auden was one of Hayden's professors at Michigan, influencing his poetry's formal organization and trimmed-down tone.
After graduating, Hayden embarked on an academic career of his own, working as a professor and researcher while also publishing poetry. He was awarded numerous prizes over the course of his life. He was the first black writer to hold the position of Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, a precursor of the Poet Laureate role. Hayden died at the age of 66 in 1980.
Historical Context
"Those Winter Sundays" doesn't give (nor necessarily need) much detail with regard to its historical context. That said, Hayden himself stated that the poem was autobiographical, a reflection on his own childhood. This was a tough upbringing in the ghetto of early-20th century Detroit. Hayden's family lived in Paradise Valley, an impoverished part of Detroit with a largely black population. It was home to large numbers of manual laborers (e.g. factory workers) and their families, and the poem suggests that the speaker's father worked a physically-intensive job.
That said, there is little in this poem about race or poverty. These subjects are far more prevalent elsewhere in Hayden's poetry, which was often more political in nature. Other works by Hayden focused on the oppression of black people in America (and Hayden often wrote with African-American vernacular) and the Vietnam War. This said, Hayden saw himself as an American poet more so than an African-American poet, which attracted some criticism at the time.
It's worth noting that Hayden's own view of this aspect of his identity was significantly informed by his religion. From the early 1940s, Hayden was a follower of the Bahá'í faith. One of the central principles of this religion is the indivisibility of humankind —the essential worth of all peoples regardless of religion or race.
-
-
More “Those Winter Sundays” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Hayden's Childhood — A brief interview segment that mentions Hayden's upbringing.
-
A Reading by Hayden — The poem read by the poet himself.
-
Hayden at the Brockport Writers Forum — Hayden reads his poetry and discusses his influences.
-
Hayden's Life and Work — A valuable resource about Hayden from the Poetry Foundation.
-
Hayden and the Academy of American Poets — Hayden's written response to being nominated to the prestigious Academy of American Poets.
-
-
