Those Winter Sundays Experience Interpret Evaluate

Purpose  To distinguish the differences and similarities between reading a short story and a poem.  To discuss the experience of poetry.  To show how to observe a poem.  To show how observations connect and give significance to a poem.  To show how to evaluate a poem.  To provide a helpful aid for writing journal entry #6.

Reading a Poem  Is it the same as reading a short story?  In most ways, yes.  We are more attentive to “linguistic detail” when we read a poem than when we read a story because poems are so compressed.  Connotation: suggestive, non-literal meaning of words.  Sound and rhythm: poems are written to be spoken and heard.  Syntax (order or words in a line) and punctuation.

Experiencing Poetry   Poetry is written to be spoken and heard, so take a moment to listen to Robert Hayden read his poem “Those Winter Sundays.”  Right click on the link above and open the link in a new window. The link will open a new window displaying a YouTube video of Robert Hayden reading (it is audio only). Close the window to return to the power point.  Does your experience hearing the poem differ from reading it? How? Why?

Experiencing Poetry  My experience  Father/Daughter relationships  My relationship with my father is different now than it was when I was a teenager.  My context has changed – I am a mother now.  Rural-urban, impoverished?  Why “chronic angers?” Was his family always fighting?  I feel some regret/guilt/appreciation from the speaker—kind of a sad poem.

Observing Poetry  Our observations of poetry will necessarily focus more intensely on language: the selection and arrangement of words; their musicality; their multiple meanings.  Other observations are important too. As with stories, we pay attention to character, setting, point of view, symbol, irony, structure, and so on.

Observing Poetry  “Those” – speaker is looking back.  “Sundays too” – the father is always up early.  “blueblack” – blue and black connote coldness, despair, loneliness; together they create some music and rhythm.  “cracked hands” – a concrete detail that suggests hard labor done over many years.  “weekday weather” – the father words outside, construction, farming.  “banked” – a low, but burning fire; perhaps fuel was scarce—poverty. Or, this is not in an outside rural setting, but inside, where fires must be small.  “No one ever thanked him” – a matter-of-fact statement.  Repetition of sounds with lots of hard “K” sounds – “blueblack,” “cracked,” “ached,” “weekday,” “banked,” “thanked.”  “cold splintering, breaking” – how does cold do that? Connotes a creaking house; ice that groans and cracks under pressure; icicles that splinter and shatter. The imagery is cold.  “When the rooms were warm” – father allows family to sleep while it is cold inside the house.  “fearing the chronic angers” – the house is cold emotionally, too. No one thanked the father, possibly because he was responsible for the chronic angers? The son resents the father, possibly even hates the father?

Observing Poetry  “Speaking indifferently” – not angrily or annoyed, but indifferent. Very teenageresque: “meh.” Speaker took for granted the father’s labors.  “who had driven…polished shoes” – speaker now understands what the father had done, and in what conditions.  “Polished shoes” – this strikes me as a very tender detail. Making a fire for the house seems a dutiful thing to do, but polishing shoes expresses much more. Perhaps the father is hopeful for something better for his child than a “weekday weather” kind of job; he wants his son to look respectful. Polishing is an unnecessary act, whereas the fire is necessary.  “good shoes” – the father, presumably, has seen to it that his child has a quality pair of shoes, and perhaps a pair to work in. This is a Sunday, so perhaps the shoes are polished for church. The father is religious? Or he wants his child to be respectful while at church? This religious aspect plugs the poem into a whole web of stories about fathers sacrificing for children, and sacrificing children.  “What did I know” – repetition creates a greater sense of awareness on the part of the speaker. The first utterance strikes me as a “I was just a dumb kid back then” kind of tone, but the second is more powerful. It carries greater significance, as in, “I knew nothing of my father’s love for me. I resented him and took him for granted.” The speaker knows his “indifference” added to the cold, lonely life his father led.  “austere, lonely offices” – office connotes duty; perhaps the father loved out of duty only, and this is what caused the constant angers in the home?

Connecting Details  Details do not come in specific scenes (moments), but in summary. Establishes sense of consistency.  Repetition of sounds: adds a hard, cold tone and feel to the language. The “k” sounds is also the sound of things breaking.  Cold imagery  Temperature  Weather  House  Emotional distance; loneliness

Connecting Details  We start to get a sense of what is important in this poem.  It is emphasizing the cold, hard, distant loneliness of this home and father.  The speaker is looking back in summary – at an entire childhood of cold indifference, possibly anger and hate.  This makes the final repeated lines so moving and powerful.  The poem may be communicating the idea that love is shown, not spoken, through acts and sacrifice, and that this is something youth are incapable of understanding.  It makes interesting pairs of love and loneliness, love and duty, love and regret, love and anger. Must love be connected to one or all?

Evaluation  In terms of literary quality, we evaluate this poem highly. It makes effective use of literary elements in delivering a concise, evocative reflection on love.  In terms of the values it communicates, we are pleased that it approaches such a familiar topic as love in such surprising ways.  An evaluation of this poem rests on how you read the final repeated lines. Is the speaker experiencing regret, sorrow, sadness, and love for his father? Is he expressing bitterness for never knowing love as a child? If regretful, how regretful? Regretful that he never thanked the old man, or regretful that he never loved the old man? Or regretful the old man never loved him in the ways he wished to be loved?

Conclusion  We read poetry with intense attention to language.  Remember that poetry should be spoken and heard – much of its intention and meaning is found in sounds.  We still follow the steps we are familiar with: experience, observe, connect, infer, conclude, evaluate.  Good luck with the rest of your tasks.