Those Winter Sundays

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade April 2001

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Writing Critically on "Those Winter Sundays"� As you look at the title, "Those Winter Sundays,"� what comes to mind. Maybe a sense of togetherness, or even a day that might be spent at home with your entire family.

I think that the title sets the reader up for an interesting story, and maybe that of which you the reader can relate themself to.

In the first stanza, the first line says "Sundays too my father got up early"� (1). I think here that we can all agree that Sunday's are a day for sleeping in. His/her father lets us know that "those winter sundays"� are going to be a regular day of getting up getting all the work done. "And put his clothes on in the "blueblack cold"� (2). The author uses "blueblack cold"� in the sense to intensify the meaning. Hayden could of just plainly said the cold, but by intensifying it, it brings out the hard work in the poem. As you move to the next proceeding lines, the author begins to talk about the work that the father does. All week long the father works to provide his family, and then while doing his own household work, gets no acknowledgment and no thank you's. "Then with cracked hands that ached/ from labor in the week day weather made/ banked firs blaze.

No one ever thanked him"� (3-5). I think here that when "banked firs blaze"� is said, it puts away the blueblack feeling. The fire is blazing, giving us the sense of warmth, and at the same time, it leaves you with the feeling of confusion. "No one ever thanked him"� is part of line five where the father has no help with the work, and being the house is blazing with warmth...