Poetry works by presenting layers of meaning through the use of a central idea that the author is trying to communicate. In many poems, this is done by presenting a common or easily imagined scene followed by a description that takes the meaning deeper into the metaphorical level. By appealing first to our senses through imagery and then building up contrasts that help shock us into understanding, poets are able to make us reconsider our ideas about often very abstract concepts. This is the case with Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” in which the poet is trying to convey a sense of the depth of a father’s love for his children.
Hayden uses imagery to grab his reader’s attention and create a world for them to experience together with the narrator. The entire first stanza paints a very clear picture of a cold winter scene in the home of a poor, working class family. The father “put on his clothes in the blueblack cold, / then with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze” (2-5). Words such as ‘blueblack’ provide the reader with a clear idea of the extreme early hour and a clear sense of the bitter cold. This kind of imagery is not just shown in the meaning of the words selected, but is also conveyed through the sound of the words. "The repetition of K sounds, plosive B's, and the steadying current of long A's ensure that a reader, no less than the boy, is able to 'hear the cold splintering, breaking' and feel when the room is 'warm'" (Moore 56). The aching cold of the morning and the sorry state of the father's cracked hands highlight the deep care he has for his children as he tries to spare them from this kind of unpleasant, even painful, morning ritual. The father continues to work for his children, polishing their shoes for them, until the house finally becomes warm enough for the children to be called from their beds. This imagery presents the deep dedication of the father in ways that simply stating the father’s love wouldn’t do.
This imagery is strongly contrasted with the emotional content of the second half of the poem. "The short, forceful sentence that ends stanza one, 'No one ever thanked him,' establishes a moral structure in the scene - the boy owed the father gratitude that he did not express" (Moore 56-57). After describing the tender scene of the father getting up in the terrible cold in order to make the house warm, the narrator suggests a much harsher understanding of the man as potentially abusive. He fears getting out of bed, “slowly, I would rise and dress, / fearing the chronic angers of that house” (Hayden 8-9). Although the father has provided such loving service for his family, the others move about "speaking indifferently to him" (Hayden 10) and never acknowledging his tenderness. The faithful service of the father’s love is contrasted sharply against the coldness of the children’s indifference and their lack of understanding.
Through imagery and contrasts, the poet demonstrates the more mature understanding of a father's love for his children and recognizes the hurtful indifference children often show toward their parents. Although he clearly thought of his father as an angry and perhaps unpredictable man in his fear of the man's heat, it is clear by the actions described within the poem that the father was deeply concerned with the welfare of his children. At the same time, it is clear that the impressions of the child are set distinctly against the father, as if there had been no love involved as the poem ends with the lines, "What did I know / what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?" (Hayden 13-14).
Works Cited
Hayden, Robert. "Those Winter Sundays." Collected Poems of Robert Hayden. Frederick Glaysher, ed. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1966. Print.
Moore, Harry. "'Offices of Love': A New Look at the Ending of Hayden's 'Those Winter Sundays'." Explicator. 69,2, (April-June 2011): 56-59. Print.
