"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden was born August 4, 1913 and died on February 25, 1980. His childhood was difficult because he was raised in a poor part of Detriot where he bounced between houses of his parents and of foster homes. After attending the Universtiy of Michigan and Wayne State University, he taught at Michigan, then at Fick University, and then again at Michigan. By 1976, Hayden became the first African American to be named as, what is known today as, the U.S. Poet Laureate. He died in Ann Arbor at the age of sixty-six.

Sundays too my father got up early 

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, 

then with cracked hands that ached 

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 

from labor in the weekday weather made 




When the rooms were warm, he’d call, 

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. 

and slowly I would rise and dress, 

who had driven out the cold 

fearing the chronic angers of that house, 

Speaking indifferently to him, 

and polished my good shoes as well. 

of love’s austere and lonely offices? 

What did I know, what did I know 

of love's austere and lonely offices?



In “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, the theme of the poem can only be derived if the reader takes into consideration the tone in which Hayden is writing. With careful use of diction, Hayden looks back at all the things his father did for him with a sense of remorse rather than nostalgia. The poem begins with “Sundays too” instead of “On Sundays” because he wants to show the reader that his father did these little acts for him, not just on some days, but on every day of the week including Sunday, the one day that people usually do not and relax. This poem is reflecting on how Hayden’s father would work so hard for him, but at the time Hayden did not recognize how caring he was being. The first stanza ends with the telegraphic sentence, “No one ever thanked him.” Ending a stanza with such brevity usually means it is an important point the author wants the reader to consider. In this case, the sentence has two effects on the reader. First, it shows the remorse in Hayden’s voice because when people are sad or reflecting on an upsetting memory, they tend to be short. Second, the reader begins to wonder if his father has passed away. If this is indeed what has happened, part of the reason Hayden is so distressed about this subject is because now that he realizes all that his father did for him, he will never have the chance to thank him for it. This tone of regret is consistent throughout the whole poem and defines the theme of the poem which is to recognize what we have and be thankful for it.