Those Winter Sundays

Journal What is courage? Write about a person or group from your own personal experience, the news, or history who behaved courageously. What made his or her actions courageous?

Participle, Gerund or Verb? The jumping frog landed in her lap. 2. Lucinda had a calling to help other people. 3. My father is teaching me to ride a bike. 4. The house was filled with a haunting spector.

Participle, Gerund or Verb? 5. Running in the halls is strictly forbidden. 6. They are caring for sick animals. 7. Paul bought new climbing gear. 8. Escaping was the only thought he had.

Why does the speaker’s father wake up early on Sundays to warm the house? What do you make of the father’s “cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday”? Why does no one thank the father? Should he expect gratitude for what he does? What are “love’s austere and lonely offices”? Do you get the impression that the speaker’s feelings have changed since he was a child? Why or why not? What obligations do we have to those who serve us? Is gratitude a responsibility? Why or why not?

Reflective Writing What is your interpretation of chronic angers in the following quotation from the poem: "I would rise and dress, / fearing the chronic angers of that house."