"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

                Even within the two short stanzas of “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, Hayden is incredibly successful in effectively conveying both a sense of appreciation, love, and respect for this father as well as a sense the loneliness which his father was forced to bear. In my initial reading of the poem, I focused only on the actions of the father and therefore determined that the central theme of the poem was the father’s dedication to his family. However, upon reading the poem a second and third time and analyzing the imagery more thoroughly, I came to form an understanding of how Hayden incorporated this imagery into the poem in order to express his father’s loneliness. For example, the imagery of the father getting dressed in the blueblack cold appeals to both the senses of sight and touch and implies that the father was left in utter loneliness at all the time, with nothing to keep him company but the stark cold and darkness of a winter night. As the poem progresses, the reader comes to understand through the imagery of the father’s cracked and worn hands that he was an diligent and dutiful worker who worked ceaselessly for the benefit of his family despite the physical toll it took on his body. However, the ultimate reality of the father’s loneliness is made evident in the boy’s reflection that “No one ever thanked him” (Hayden, 781) and by ultimately asking the rhetorical question, “…what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices” (Hayden, 782).The poem’s title “Those Winter Sundays” also contributes greatly to this notion of the father’s loneliness; after all, coldness and winter are frequently associated with loneliness, illness, death, etc. Furthermore, Sundays are a day of rest in which every member of the family would spend at home; therefore, the fact that the father performed all of this work in solitude on a day when he should be with his family reinforces the idea even further that he suffered at the hands of “lonely offices.”

                While the imagery of the cracked hands and blueblack darkness certainly contribute greatly to the idea of hardship and loneliness, the imagery of the crackling fire stands in stark contrast to these images and presents a notion opposite that of loneliness: love and companionship. While the father is alone in the darkness as he prepares the fire for the rest of those in the family, the light and warmth emanating from the fire ultimately draws the son out of bed and presumably will have the same effect on any other family members. Although the speaker expressed a fear of the “chronic angers” of the house, he also refers to his father as the man who drove the coldness from the house. With this description, Hayden creates a bit of irony within his poem. While the father seems to be very lonely and solitary, his hard work and sacrifice seems to be what allows the other members of the family to enjoy warmth, relaxation, and freedom from worry or anxiety. The fact that the father seems apparently willing to endure a variety of unpleasant realities for the sake of his family, however, speaks volumes towards the quality of his character. Consequently, the reader is ultimately able to draw messages not only concerning loneliness, but also messages conveying the importance of making sacrifices for family members and loving others with limitation or the expectation of a reward. Ultimately, Hayden’s implementation of vivid imagery in the poem enables the reader to draw a plethora of themes and morals from the poem which are easily related to.