Parents often have the desire to give to their children no matter how much pain it brings to themselves. In Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays," the father does whatever is necessary to make his family comfortable. In the early morning he awakens to a cold house and rises to prepare a fire that will warm the house for the rest of the family. As the son grows older and matures, he realizes that he should have praised his father for the many sacrifices he has made in the past. Hayden uses imagery throughout the poem to enable the reader to sense the devotion of the father and the ungratefulness of the son.

In the early stages of the poem, Hayden creates the image of a caring, devoted father. The typical stereotype of a father is that of a man who is willing to work for his family. In the poem Hayden creates the same image by saying, "Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold" (ll. 11-12). The father cares so immensely for his family that he sacrifices his own comfort for them. Hayden mentions that he rises in the "blueblack cold" to emphasize that the sun has not even begun to rise. The speaker further characterizes the father b

Hayden's effective use of imagery allows the reader to gain a unique understanding of the poem through descriptions of character and atmosphere. By describing the father's efforts to show his love and the son's inability to realize that the father is showing love, the speaker brings the reader's emotions into play. Hayden reveals the theme of the poem - lack of communication can often cause the most valuable parts of life to be overlooked - by leading the reader to realize the speaker's pain. The reader is able to identify this pain only through the poet's effective use of imagery.

y saying that his "cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze" (ll. 3-5). The father works every day in the harsh weather causing himself physical pain. Sunday mornings, ironically, are no exceptions because the duty of warming the house still remains. The first stanza ends with, "No one ever thanked him" (1. 5). Everything he does for his

child. Only when it is too late does he realize that his father was showing his love by sacrificing things for his family.

family is out of love, not desire for gratification. The second stanza includes imagery of the father by mentioning

Some common words found in the essay are:
Winter Sundays, Sundays Parents, father love, Robert Hayden's, realize father, realize father love, chronic angers, poem hayden creates, hayden creates image, love family, third stanza, sundays father, father's love, creates image, blueblack cold, speak indifferently,
Approximate Word count = 820
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)