Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
1. What words could you use to describe the sounds in this poem?
2. Do the sounds of this poem change from stanza to stanza?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
"Those Winter Sundays," Robert Hayden
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I don't think the sounds of this poem change between stanzas. In the first stanza the father is cracking and aching sounds of pain. In the second stanza it is similar. The cold is splintering and breaking. The crisp diction emphasizes the bitterness of the cold morning.
ReplyDeleteI think the words cracked hands, ached, fires blaze , and splintering are words from this passage that pop out at me. All the words portray onomatopoeia. The words are realistic and sound as if they are happening to me.
ReplyDeleteSound words: cracked,ached, splintering, breaking.
ReplyDeleteI think the sound is getting weaker though the stanzas.
I agree with Erin, the "cracked hands" really caught my attention and made me want to read the rest of the poem. I think it's kind of sad that the father did all that work for his family but never received a thanks, although that's probably how it is in a lot of households (including mine!).
ReplyDeleteThe sounds in this poem seem to be sharp and shattering. They seem to break the "peace" of the environment. The first stanza of this poem also reminds me of my own father. He is always working and has little or no time for us. I also do not thank him as much as I should.
ReplyDeleteThe words I would use to describe the sound in this poem are: cracked, ached, blaze, splintering, chronic and austere. These words describe medium diction I would say because they aren't basic words yet they are extravagent either. These words do a good job in helping the reader feel the pain and comprehend the emotion behind it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the sound changes much between stanzas because all of the words have the same kind of feel to them. The words don't become higher or lower diction as the poem goes on.
I agree with Jordy, I think the sound of this poem is described through words like cracked, ached, blaze, splintering, and chronic. These words make me want to cringe, they seem painful. The sound is cooling and harsh. The sound doesn't really change from stanza to stanza. All of the words flow together creating a brutal yet melodic feel.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cold and rough words in the beginning symbolize the ungratefullness that he once felt towarads his father ("No one ever thanked him"). The harsh words could indicate taht the father stuggled because it talks about his "cracked hands that ached".
ReplyDeleteBut, maybe he began to regret not being thankful because he says ("what did I know").
I think that his poem is just about a working class man and his hardships over the years. The words that describe sound in this poem are splintering, breaking, and cracked. These words could be illustrating how the man is broken from all of the work that he does that goes unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteI think the words "cracked hands", "splintering", and "breaking" all help set the tone of this poem. These sad and almost mournful sounds help describe how lonely the boy and his father are.
ReplyDelete