"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

Question 1

stanza one

Answer 1

• “too” illustrates that his father gets up everyday as a sacrifice for his family
• “blueblack cold” creates imagery of the intense cold his father experiences from waking up before everyone else

Question 2

stanza two

Answer 2

• “splintering, breaking” creates imagery of the intense cold
• “chronic” shows the persistent tension in the relationship between the father and son
• “slowly” while the father gets up early to sacrifice for his family, this work plays against that and shows that the son wakes up at his own pace

Question 3

stanza three

Answer 3

• “indifferently” shows the lack of feeling that the son felt for the father, regardless of the lvoe the father felt for the son
• “polishes my good shoes” shows the sacrifice of the father for the son
• “austere” and “lonely” shows that the son did not understand the fathers strict routine which made the son feel lonely

Question 4

tone

Answer 4

is regretful because he does not recognize his father’s love

Question 5

speaker’s father

Answer 5

sacrificial

Question 6

what words does hayden use to express how often his father worked

Answer 6

sundays too; labor in the weekday

Question 7

answers

Answer 7

• the home had been a place of tension for a long time
• possibly because “no one ever thanked him” and the reader spoke “indifferently to him”
• he wanted to emphasize the greatness of the father’s efforts to warm the house
• it was a job he performed everyday of the week outside
• assonance (repetition of the a sound in words)
• Sundays were supposed to be his day off, yet he still worked
• the monotony of the father’s life, working week after week
• because he feared the “chronic angers of that house”