Those Winter Sundays

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

"When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house" (Hayden, page 781).

This poem was full of imagery and language that made me conclude the topic of this poem was an abusive father. The father is described with cracked hands, waking the the blueblack cold, and unthanked. The house is described as being cold, with fires blazing, and with chronic anger. All of the details led me to believe this along with the last line with love's austere and lonely offices. The house has an overall feeling of cold, lonely, and without love while the father seems to be cold with anger which creates the heat and anger of the home. The "what did I know, what did I know" (Hayden, page 782), implies that the child did not know any differently than the experience in the home. The various images created from the imagery also contributed to the central image of abuse or hardship for the child in the home. Words such as blueblack cold, cracked hands, ached, fires blaze, chronic angers, fearing, lonely, splinting, and breaking create the imagery and description. The descriptions of the home and father allow for further evaluation of the events and home where the child is seen deeper and more personally. Without even knowing much about the child directly, the child's character and being shines through with the general images and language put forward through description.