"Those Winter Sundays" Explication

Robert Hayden's use of tactile imagery of the cold to express the relationship between a father and his son is central to the poem. In the first stanza, the cold shows that the father is hardworking and dedicated to supporting his family. He works even on Sundays in the winter which are typically days of rest after a busy week. He immediately gets up when he awakes to make a fire so early in the "blueblack cold" that it is still dark outside before sunrise. He bears the discomfort of the cold winter morning to bring warmth to his family. His hands are "cracked" and ache with old age and because of his frequent manual labor. However, his strength continues to blaze like the fire with its bright and intense heat. The fire also demonstrates his affection for his family, even though he does not explicitly tell them. No one thanks him because they do not fully appreciate his labor, which they take for granted.

The description of the cold is also used to reveal the son's ignorance to the convenience that his father's work brings to his life. In the second stanza, the son first wakes up to the "splintering, breaking" cold, so it is close to freezing outside but the rooms are comfortable and warm inside. Then, he leisurely gets up out of bed without realizing that the reason he has more time to rest is because of his father. He only thinks about the "chronic angers" in the family, so they are constantly arguing with each other. The warmth of the house also describes the heat of their anger, while their relationship is cold and not close. The son is older in the third stanza and may be a parent himself experiencing the same lack of appreciation as his own father. He feels guilty for his harsh treatment towards his father, such as "speaking indifferently" to him. He begins to consider his father as valiant for driving or forcing out the cold in the morning to protect his family from the icy winter weather. He reflects on the significance of the little tasks that his father did, like polishing his shoes. He understands that acts of love can be severe and lonley because they are not always acknowledged by others.