Titanic poem by david slavitt analysis

Poem Analysis

Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays is a poetic work of art by an African-American named Robert Hayden. It has a domestic setting with fourteen lines and written in free verse. Its the first appearance was in “A Ballad of Remembrance”, one of the most famous poems applied in the academic curriculum. Robert’s literature was first published in the early 1960s, though it was a slightly different version then. Hayden was born in 1913 and grew up in Paradise Valley in Detroit, an impoverished area that was mostly inhabited by African Americans ("Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays"). Due to financial constraints in those times, at the age of two, Robert was adopted by a neighbor’s family once his parents separated. His adoptive father was a s committed Christian who did manual labor. His family helped nurture his gift in poetry even when he was still quite young. His poem defines the unspoken love of a father towards a son, realization of father’s love, and intergenerational conflict.

The poem begins,” Sundays too my father got up early”. The poet illustrates the depth of love his father had towards him and this family. It is considered quite unusual for the father to be awake earlier than everyone especially on a Sunday, that is, a day of rest and worship (Biespiel). The father began his day by warming up the house for his child who was still in bed so that the cold would not catch him. He was a manual laborer with sore hands yet, each day he would light the fire to warm the house and once the rooms were warm enough he would call his son. What depths of love a father has towards his son!

The tension between the father and his son is evident in the line ”feeling chronic anger in that house”. The son was afraid his father and unappreciative of his efforts. The cold here is metaphoric to imply the distant relationship between the father and son. Though the father tries to portray love, his son took him for granted. The lines, ”speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold, and polished my shoes as well” are a clear indication of his father’s love. The son, however, was ignorant of this and mainly focused on his father’s harshness. The polishing of shoes here is literal (Biespiel). It is assumed that the father polished his son’s shoes in readiness for Sunday church service. The father’s actions are likened to those of the good shepherd in the Bible since he was ever loving and merciful to his son. Also, we can deduce that the father cared about the family appearance and dignity. The Intergenerational conflict between the father and son is evident in the poem.

Fortunately, the father’s efforts were appreciated by his son, though much later in his adulthood. The realization of his father love dawned on the son. He realized that love is most often quiet in words but loud in action. The son also suffered guilt for taking his father’s love for granted. The poet writes, “What did I know, what did I know”, showing a sense of guilt for some things he did when he was young and ignorant ("Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays"). He now feels that he should have been more thankful and appreciative of his loving and hardworking father. The repetition shows great emphasis of his regret. Though guilty, the son looks at his dad with admiration of his great works.

Most often, children take their parents for granted, especially those in their teenagehood. They do not pay attention to their parent's unspoken love and thus lead to broken relationships between parents and their children. However, just like the good shepherd, parents are still ever-loving and merciful to their children. This is a wake-up call for me and my peers to appreciate our parents and guardians always, before it is too late. Once we become adults life will get busy and the time to appreciate parents may not be as much as we would want. Love your parents.