“Those Winter Sundays”
by Robert Hayden (1913-1980)1
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.
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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?
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[published in 1962]
1. Vocabulary bank (part of speech and definition in context)
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Banked:

Chronic:
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Indifferently:
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Austere:
2. What emphasis does “Sundays too” give to the image of the father in this poem?
What does the description of the father’s labor at home and work suggest about his
relationship to his family?
3. How has the speaker’s attitude toward his father changed in lines 13-14 from what it
was in lines 7-10?
4. Explain the use of the word “offices” in conveying his father’s role in life.
From http://www.poets.org: “Born Asa Bundy Sheffey in 1913, Robert Hayden was raised in a poor
neighborhood in Detroit. He had an emotionally tumultuous childhood and was shuttled between the home
of his parents and that of a foster family, who lived next door. Because of impaired vision, he was unable to
participate in sports, but was able to spend his time reading. In 1932, he graduated from high school and,
with the help of a scholarship, attended Detroit City College (later Wayne State University).”
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2. What emphasis does “Sundays too” give to the image of the father in this poem?
What does the description of the father’s labor at home and work suggest about his
relationship to his family?
3. How has the speaker’s attitude toward his father changed in lines 13-14 from what it
was in lines 7-10?
4. Explain the use of the word “offices” in conveying his father’s role in life.