Prabin Raj Chalise

Roll No.

ENG. 554-1

Pradip Sharma

Date

“Regrets” a changing emotion on Robert Hayden “Those Winter Sundays”

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary regret means as noun “sorrow aroused by

circumstances beyond one's control or power to repair”. Origin Late Middle English from Old

French word “regreter” ‘bewail (the dead)’, perhaps from the Germanic base of greet. Regret is

done when there is realization on the mistake which someone made unknowingly or after He or

She knew that it was mistake. Regret is a kind of compensation for the mistake which is happen

by our hands. Its tribute when we realize, someone has become victim form our hands or we did

not respect or we were not thankful. Oftentimes we look back at a certain point in our lives with

regret. We feel that if only we had known then what we know now, things would have been

different. As we grow older, our view of the world is altered through experience and maturity.

And he we realize that we had done the mistake first thing we do is regret in our life. When there

is list of opportunity there is regret that is only left for to do.

Robert Hayden is sharing his childhood experience in this poem. In Robert Hayden poem,

persona is also regretting for his father contribution in his life which he was unable to see in his

childhood days but, now he is mature he realizes for mistreating his father in such way as an

outsider in childhood days. That home was created and run by his father but still the father was
not like by him. He was stranger in his own house and poet regret for such behavior for his

father. Now he realizes his father was doing a lot for the sake of his family. A changing emotion

toward his father is seen in the poem.

Generally kids, especially boys feel uncomforted with their father. It is experience by many

children during their childhood. They feel that father do not understand them. His freedom is

taken by his father, so they feel un free in front of father. In every society in the world, mostly

boys feel that father put discipline, they always guide this and that and they scold if kids do not

follow the way his father has said to him. They feel that my father don not understand me. Father

says he is experience one and his son should do as he said but son says he is from new generation

and father do not know about the new thing, about new life. We can take example of “Father and

Son” Cat Stevens

Father says. “It’s not time to make a change

Just relax, take it easy

You're still young, that's your fault

There's so much you have to know….

Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy….

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy

To be calm when you've found something going on….

For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not….”

Son reply” All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside

It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it

If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them they know not me
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away

I know I have to go….”

In the mid of this poem the son wants to leave the home do what he want from long time but was

not able due to his father. The original situation of this song is on the context of Russian

revolution. So by understanding on that base, the son is ready to join the revolution but father is

trying to convince him not to go for war.

Father heart is not ready to leave his son he decides to protect him as all fathers do. If he goes

than he might not come, for whom father has spent his youth. This will automatically break the

heart of any father so; he is protecting his son. As a youngster point of view it looks like

selfishness. As a father it is totally justifiable and understandable reaction brought about due to

the limitless love he has for his son. But son think he is free to do what he want. He feels that

father does not know better than him, father belong to the old generation. In this Robert

Hayden’s poem we find similarity.

Robert C Evans, “Those Winter Sundays Theme”

The poem explores the theme of love in other ways as well.  Now that the speaker is

older himself, he is better able to appreciate -- and celebrate in words -- the quiet love

that his father demonstrated so silently but meaningfully in the past.  The poem itself is a

verbal expression of love by the son for the father. The speaker now regrets that he,

apparently like other members of the family, took the father’s love for granted and

showed no gratitude for it at the time: “No one ever thanked him”. The poem is the

speaker’s form of belated thanks, of belated reciprocal love, toward (and for) the father.
Here, poets come to his old age, poets regret, upon his past days in his father’s house. He realizes

that his father used to love him and how he denies respecting his father. Father loved his family

but poet never understood him. He is old now and he is trying to say how he loved the family

and work for the family. He is appreciating with his words that his father was not able to convey

his love to the family in words but he always work for the family. He behaves as an outsider in

his own family. And poet regret treating his father as a permanent server for him and him never

thanks him. The poet shows late love for his father which he is showing in his older days.

Daniel Landau: Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays": A Child’s Memory”

In Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays," the speaker is a man reflecting on his past

and his apathy toward his father when the speaker was a child. As an adult the speaker

has come to understand what regretfully had escaped him as a boy. Now he has learned to

appreciate the form his father’s love had taken. The speaker now understands how

difficult and lonely the duties of parental love can be and how they are borne out of

selflessness and without expectation of reciprocity. The various elements of the poem

work to support this theme and contribute to the poem’s emotional appeal.”

Poet is remembering his past and his mistake which he was not able to analyses in his childhood.

Now he regret upon his deed. As he has become older, he knew that how speeded days with his

father. He is very sad for this and he cannot do anything now. The way he is appreciating his

father it’s clear that he is regretting and trying to thank him with poem. Poet says that he never

knew his father was sacrificing for him. Every parent sacrifices for their children. Poet realizes it

very late. Poet is very emotional for his parent selfish less for him. Parents are the only person in

the world who always loves their children progress without any jealousy. And poet realizes it

very late
SADLER MARIETTA, “What Does the Father Sacrifice in the Poem? Why Is It a Great

Sacrifice for Him?”

The father used to work hard for his son. He had "cracked hands that ached / from labor

in the weekday." The implication here is that the father worked long hours, and that,

given the condition of his hands; his work was probably some form of manual labor. The

son seems to feel somewhat guilty about all these sacrifices that his father made for him

because he says, at the end of the first stanza, that "no one ever thanked him."

Poet is very emotional by remembering his father. His presence in family, his father used to work

hard all the time, even in the Sundays. In return, he gets hatred form his son. Father would have

suffered from insight which was not seen by his family members. Poet states his physical effort

due to which hands were cracked. He had cracked hand; he wake up in cold morning and prepare

fire for the family. He sacrifices his all days for family and family never welcome him never

thanked him; here poet feel very sad and sorry for his father. He becomes emotional and feels

guilt for his behavior. He sacrifices his whole life and he never think to thank him when he was

alive and it’s too late and he regret.

James Howard, “Those Winter Sundays"

The poem paints a vivid picture of the speaker’s father as a man with a strong

sense of familial duty. On Sundays (traditionally a day of rest), the father is

always the first to rise. On these harsh winter mornings, he gets up early—even

though he is tired from his week of hard work outside—to light a fire and bring

warmth to the house. The fact that he does this on Sundays “too” implies that he

does this during the rest of the week as well. He makes this regular sacrifice in
 order to make his family more comfortable. This humble ritual suggests the

presence of emotional warmth, even if it might not be clearly expressed in words.

Indeed, as the speaker confesses, “no one ever thank[s]” the father.

Poet’s father was strongly guided by his duty and love for family. To full feel his duty he did lot

for the family but poet never thanked him. Sundays, days for rest, still father wake ups very early

to warm the house. To save family form cold. On very cold morning, though he is tired of whole

week hard work. He tried for his family. Here poets use “too” to indicate that he work in day of

rest which means more than enough. He even spent days for family which was for rest. All

reason he work was for family for poet. He was unable to cover his family with warmth of

wealth but always trying to cover his family with emotion. Even though poet is not clearly

express his emotion. His father always tries to cover him with warmth of his love in his child

hood days

Robert hoyden no doubt, he is regretting for his action which he perform for his father. He has

realized it very late and it want pay for it but he cannot because his father is no more there and he

can only regret for it. He appreciates his father work. He is older now and he understand what

pain his father had gain in return of his loyalty upon his family. Still he polishes his sons boot

and wake up early in morning and warm the house for his cruel family.

Sundays too my father got up early

And put his clothes on in the blue-black cold,

                    Then with cracked hands that ached

                    From labor in the weekday weather made

                    Banked fires blaze (2-5)

Hayden uses harsh consonant sounds in lines two and three in the words "cold," "cracked," and "
ached" to evoke the harshness of the life of the father of the speaker. 

The pain of the father is sensed by the strong "cracked hands that ached." imagery. The reader als

o gets a sense of the household's low economic status from terms such as”blue black," "labor" an

d "weekday weather." One

can infer that the father has a lowpaying bluecollar job and that in the freezing cold, he works wit

h his hands doing manual labor outside. 

In the fourth line, when he takes "banked fires" the strength of the father is created and makes th

em "blaze" to create a comfortable place for his son.

The first stanza ends with the accurate and significant "No one ever thanked him" (5). Placed at t

he end of the stanza and the end of Line 5, this sentence stands out as though it where alone a dif

ferent thought, an afterthought. 

Hayden places it here in order to draw our attention to it to highlight his father's isolation. From t

his line, the reader will infer the extent of the child's ungratefulness and maybe the adult speaker'

s regret.

The second stanza is dedicated to the speaker’s feelings and his view of his life at that time.

Hayden creates a sense of apprehension and fear that the boy felt toward his father and his home:

                    I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

                    When the rooms were warm, he’d call (6-7)

The act of going out in the "blue black cold" and then conquering it and calling his boy when it

was "warm" is symbolic of their lives in the real world. The father goes out to work in the harsh

"weekday weather" to create a safe, warm environment for his child and to put a roof over his

head.
The speaker tells us of his fear in the eighth and ninth lines. He conveys the chilling, sullen aura

of their home. In Line 9 Hayden uses metonymy by using "the house" to represent the people in

it. Interestingly, Hayden does not explain the "chronic angers of that house." But one can

speculate that the father is burdened by his low socioeconomic status. Also, the boy could

interpret his father’s distress and fatigue to be anger toward him. Finally, as critic Floyd Irmscher

points out, nowhere does the poem mention a mother or a wife. If the child’s mother and father’s

wife had died or had left, a deep rooted sense of anger and shame could hang in the air of their

tiny home (Ogilvy 91).

In the last stanza, the reader senses the deep regret the speaker now feels over his treatment of

his father. He recalls

                    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? (10-14)

The speaker confesses that as a child he was apathetic and cold toward his father in spite of all

the latter’s hard work and devotion. Along with literally warming the house, the father was a

servant who performed such mundane tasks as polishing his son’s shoes. This small image

underscores the love the father must have had for the child.
Hayden repeats the question "What did I know?" in Line 13. In doing so, he allows the reader to

acknowledge the terrible sense of sadness and regret the speaker now feels. The poem’s final line

completes the question: "what did I know/of love’s austere and lonely offices?" The child was

unable to know the difficulty and sacrifice of parental love. The word "offices" denotes a service

done for another. It implies that the father’s life revolved around serving his son. It also signifies

a religious rite or ceremony ("office"). This ties in with the religious elements of the poem in that

the father was participating in the parental ritual of sacrificing one’s own happiness for that of

one’s child.

The tone of Robert Hayden’s "Those Winter Sundays" is one of sadness and regret. It is simple

in form but its elements work to support a theme that many can sympathize with and appreciate.

How unfortunate it is that as children we are so often unable to comprehend "love’s austere and

lonely offices."