Boys and Girls

A detailed Summary of Boys and Girls

" Poetry is full of surprises K Even poems on „predictable' subjects can surprise us with unpredicated attitudes, unusual events, or a sudden twist „ ( Beaty and Hunter 620 ) . This is one of the most important natures of poetry. The poem „Those Winter Sundays' is really a good example as its ending is very surprising --- from neglecting and fearing of father at the beginning to appreciating him in the end. Readers need to read to the end so as to know the result.

The poem„Those Winter Sundays' was written by the first-person perspective. In the first stanza of the poem , the speaker first introduced his father by describing that his father always got up very early in winter Sundays. Then, his father made fire blaze so as to make the house warm for him in the cold winter. However, he didn't thank his father. In the second stanza, the speaker woke up then and heard the sounds of the wood in the fire. He described the sounds as splintering and breaking. Then, when the rooms were warm enough, his father would call him to wake up. Although the winter was very cold, the speaker still got up and dressed as he was afraid that his father would become angry. In the last stanza, the speaker spoke and res

"What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices? "( lines 13,14 ) the relationship between him and his father changed from negative to positive as the role of the speaker changed from a child to an adult who might become a father and knew the difficulties that his father faced in the past. The speaker repeatedly said "what did I know" in order to reveal that how innocent he was when he was a child and now he know that although the love of his father was so invisible, it was the best and simplest one.

ponded to his father indifferently although his father had done so many things for him --- made the house warm, polished his shoes. In the last two lines, the speaker regretted as his father felt lonely and he hadn't known that love could be expressed in such simple way like his father did.

For the tone of the speaker in the poem, there are two tones. In the first twelve lines, the tone was to build up an atmosphere that he defied and disagreed with what his father did. But, in the last two lines, the tone changed abruptly --- suddenly became lyric, especially he repeatedly said "What did I know, what did I know" and this makes readers feel that how remorseful and regret he was and he now treasure and appreciate his father's love. Actually, the tone in the last two lines is the main one and that is why the writer wrote this poem to express his wistfulness of his fathers' love. So, specifically speaking, the tone of the poem is a little sad and wistful.

In the poem, we can know the parent-child relationship by the use of words or phrases. For example, "no one ever thanked him" ( line 5 ), "Speaking indifferently to him" ( line 10 ) , "fearing" ( line 9 ) , it seemed to us that his relationship with his father w

Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Hayden, Winter Sundays', Winter Sundays, Appreciate Poetry, Beaty Hunter, cold line, line 2, father's love, cold winter, winter sundays', house warm, „those winter sundays', cold line 2, love's austere lonely, poem „those winter, cracked hands, lines tone, relationship father, poem „those, austere lonely offices,

Approximate Word count = 1179
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English