Carley Berry

ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

A New Critical Reading of Robert Haydens Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays, written by Robert Hayden, is a poem in which the speaker
looks back to their childhood and their treatment of their father. Haydens use of imagery,
tension, voice, and form, as well as other types of figurative language are essential to the
portrayal of the universality of this poem, being that a parents love for their child is complicated
and difficult.
Haydens use of visual imagery allows the reader to see the father as a man who works
very hard, both in the house and outside of it. The poem begins by describing what seems to be a
typical morning for this home. The father rises early and dresses in the blueback cold (line 2).
The use of the words blueback and cold and early seem to make the morning even more cold
and quiet. More than that, the speaker gives the reader an idea of the circumstances surrounding
the father. The father is described as having cracked hands that ached/from labor in the
weekday weather (3-4). The father works with his hands outside, allowing the reader to
conclude that that he is from a lower socio-economic class. The description of the fathers hands
along the side of the coldness of the morning paint an even clearer picture; a hard-working man
working even on his day off, continuing to provide for his family.
Those Winter Sundays is also filled with auditory imagery, adding to the visual
imagery. The speaker would wake and hear the sound of the house heating up, describing it as
cold splintering, breaking (6). These sounds remind the reader of those heard in a fireplace.

Carley Berry
ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

This line also gives quite a bit of information. First, it tells us that these sounds were what woke
the speaker up in the morning, rather than when the father calls out. Secondly, it helps the reader
to understand just how early the father gets up, as the sounds being described are those of a
house warming up, which it would take some to do. Interestingly, the speaker does not get out of
bed upon being awoken, but rather waits until the rooms were warm (7).
Hayden creates tension by his use of hot and cold temperatures. The hot and cold
temperatures are represented in each stanza, commenting on how important they are. The father
faces the cold alone so he can stoke the fires before his family wakes. The reader sees the cold
house reacting to the warmth of the fire. The father is described as being the one to have driven
out the cold (11). The father is associated with warmth and the speaker being representative of
cold. The speaker speaks coldly, or indifferently to him (10). The tension between the speaker
and the father is mimicked by the tension between temperatures.
Those Winter Sundays also shows tension using anger. The speaker fear[s] the chronic
angers of that house, which could be interpreted two different ways (9). One interpretation is
that it is the house itself that is angry, creaking and groaning with the constant temperature
change. Another reading is that the members of the house, or one member in particular, are
angry often. It could be that the speaker is simply waiting to rise until the house is warm, but
more likely it is due to trying to avoid the tension within the family.
There are several instances where the reader sees religious overtones. In the first line,
Sundays too my father got up early, the word too suggests that he gets up early every
morning to warm the house before waking anyone (1). The mention of the word Sunday, bring
about religious connotations. Sunday is traditionally the day of rest in Christian-based religions,

Carley Berry
ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

and it is also the day on which people go to church. In the third stanza, the speaker again brings
religious imagery by speaking about his good shoes being polished, on that Sunday (12).
The reader can infer that by polishing and wearing his good shoes on Sunday that he is getting
ready to go to church and wearing his Sunday best. It also suggests pride, making sure that the
speakers shoes are shined and ready for church.
The use of tone and form in the poem sheds light onto the speakers relationship dynamic
with the father by speaking indifferently to him (10). This indifference or coldness, lends a
credibility to the idea that the chronic anger comes from the father. However, in the very next
line, the tone changes. The father is not just an angry man, but one who had driven out the
cold (11). The word driven lends itself to the idea of fighting or battling. The reader can see
an image doing battle with the cold, pushing it backward and out of the house, protecting all
those inside. This father, the one waging war on the weather every morning, does not seem cold
or angry at all. This father seems determined and strong. Moving to the third line, the tone shifts
again, and the warrior father becomes the father who polished my good shoes as well (12).
There is more to this father than anger and strength. The tone of voice speaks to imagery that is
full of tenderness and of love.
There seem to be two separate voices or speakers in this poem; one being a speaker
observing the past and another clearly aware and regretfully in the present day. The cognizant
speaker says, No one ever thanked him (5). This has substantial meaning to the poem in its
entirety, and sheds light on a few pieces of new information. First, it proves that the speaker is
looking back on past events, looking back from adulthood to childhood. Second, it suggests that
there are more people in the family than just the father and the speaker; there are more people

Carley Berry
ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

who are not thanking him for warming the house. Third, the structure of this sentence is
different from all of the other sentences. It is only five words long, as opposed to the length of
the other sentences, signifying its importance. The final two lines of the poem transport the
reader back to present day: What did I know, what did I know / of loves austere and lonely
offices? (13-14). The repetition at the beginning of line thirteen shows the regret that the
speaker feels with regard to their childhood treatment of their father. As an adult, the speaker
recognizes that the father showed love to his family by ensuring that they were warm and
comfortable. The fathers role was that of provider and protector, a traditional definition of the
word. The use of the word did implies that the speaker now understands the role his father
played, and feels guilty for not understanding and appreciating it sooner.
Robert Haydens Those Winter Sundays is a beautiful and thorough representation of a
parents love of a child, and how it is often not realized by the child until adulthood. Haydens
use of form, tension, voice, verb tense, and imagery to deliver this universal truth; that to love
someone is a harsh and serious job and one that can be incredibly lonely.

Carley Berry
ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

While writing this analysis, I had to keep in mind the rules for New Criticism. I had to
ignore the fact that this was published in 1962 by an African American man. I had to ignore that
the author grew up in Detroit during some of the most difficult times, both racially and
economically, that Detroit has seen. I was able to use the fathers physical condition to infer that
he worked a job that paid a low wage, but I was not able to use the fact that the auto industry was
hit hard by the Great Depression, and that work was scarce. Because I had to ignore the
difficulty that the father would have had finding work based on his race and the scarcity of jobs
during this time, I could not definitely say that he was the source of chronic anger in the home,
although anger would be completely justified.

Because this is a New Critical analysis, I had to structure my reading around the types of
figurative language being used, rather than to analyze it in an organized way. Also, due to the
fact that I could not include the background of the father, I had to consider that the house itself
was angry. There was no indication that the anger came specifically from the father, and the only
other place it could come from was the house itself.

Carley Berry
ENG-230
New Critical Interpretation and Response
March 2, 2015

Works Cited
Hayden, Robert. Those Winter Sundays. The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a
Classic Tradition in English. Ed. Phillis Levin. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. 219.
Print.