1. CONFERENCE #1 (MANDATORY)
Introduction to Poetry--"Those Winter Sundays"
CONFERENCE #1 (MANDATORY)
If you have not met with me for your conference, your research paper is in great danger because it requires weeks of advance planning. See me after class to set a time.
Our second conference will happen when you have your first draft (in three weeks). I will send/post the link to set an appointment soon.

2. Those Winter Sundays
Robert
Hayden

3. Robert Hayden ( ) (p. 212)
Born August 4, 1913, as Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Michigan, and taken into a foster family
Raised in a slum called Paradise Valley (Detroit’s ghetto)
Attended Detroit City College
Married Erma Morris in 1940
Known for poems that express the African-American experience
In 1976, appointed consultant to the Library of Congress, becoming the first African-American poet to receive this honor
In 1980, died of heart failure

4. “Those Winter Sundays” (p. 213)
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?

5. The Speaker The son/daughter of the father Probably is his son
(“and polished my good shoes as well”)
He is an adult now, looking back onto what his father had done for him in the past
He realizes now how he wasted his childhood not recognizing the little things that his father did

6. The Attitude of the Speaker Toward his Father
A Subtle Love – building fires in the early morning that “drove out the cold”
Fear– (“fearing the chronic angers of that house”) –implies that his family fought a lot
Regret – the boy didn’t understand the significance his father had until later in his life

7. The Poem’s Organization
3 stanzas
2 stanzas with 5 lines
1 quatrain (4 lines)
Loose blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)
Lengths of the sentences vary
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?

8. The Poem’s Organization
The first stanza, lines 1-5
Establishes the subject, the speaker’s father
Focuses upon the father’s suffering
The father sacrifices himself to get up early, work, and warm the home for his family
Ends with a very powerful line, “No one ever thanked him.”
The speaker never acknowledged his father’s actions

9. The Poem’s Organization
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?
The second stanza, lines 6-9
Once warmth is achieved, the father calls his son to rise and get dressed
Mentions “chronic angers” in the household

10. The Poem’s Organization
The third stanza, lines 10-14
Begins with the image of distance as a continuation of the last line of the second stanza (“speaking indifferently to him”)
But also mentions that he was ungrateful for the things his father did
Speaker admits his ignorance over the simple love for his father (“…what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices”)

11. Imagery
Cracked hands
Implies the rough labor that the father went through
Sunday
Typically is a day of rest… Shows that the father got up early to do things for the family regardless of the day
Fire
Shows a contrast with “blueblack cold”
Shows a sense of liveliness and anger as well

12. Diction and Syntax
Mostly straightforward language, but some vivid (“blueblack cold,” “chronic angers”) and connotative (“offices”)
Progression between the contrast of dark/cold and light/warm throughout the poem
1st Stanza (father getting up):
“blueblack cold” in contrast to “banked fires blaze”
2nd Stanza (son waking up):
“cold, splintering, breaking” in contrast to “the rooms were warm”
- Could indicate a similar relationship between the father and son

13. Diction and Syntax
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,
The word choice in the first 2 stanzas emphasizes the hard “c” sound, which could symbolize the pain of the father and of the household.
Uses alliteration as well to make the poem “sound” smooth.

14. Diction and Syntax
3rd Stanza:
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?
The diction in the last stanza is a lot more calm and relaxed compared to the first two stanzas, as conveyed in the meaning of the final stanza (a sense of love/remembrance)

15. Introduction to Poetry--"Those Winter Sundays"
Conclusions
“Those Winter Sundays” is about an adult who is looking back at his past relationship with his father. He now recognizes the extremity to which his father did things for him even within the angry household. The speaker regrets not recognizing the habitual actions that his father did for him while he was young.
The title is significant in that it describes the typical winter Sundays that the speaker’s father would do things for him and how, in his youth, he never appreciated any of it.

16. Bibliography
Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays.” The Compact Bedford Anthology of Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, Print.
Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. “Culture, Race, and Ethnicity." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Boston: Pearson Longman, Print.
“Robert Hayden.” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets. 16 Apr Web.

17. Let’s try analyzing some other poems:
Introduction to Poetry--"Those Winter Sundays"
Let’s try analyzing some other poems:
Margaret Atwood’s “You fit into me” (p. 228; consider tone, diction, repetition, imagery, and irony)
William Hathaway’s “Oh, Oh” (handout; consider tone, diction, imagery, and irony)
Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” (p. 219; consider metaphor, diction, connotation, and ironic tone)
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (p. 236; consider diction, irony, rhyme, and tone)
Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory” (p. 216; consider irony, rhyme, rhythm, meter)
Katharyn Howd Machan’s “Hazel Tells LaVerne” (handout; consider diction, irony, and allusion)
William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say” (p. 223; consider image, diction, rhythm)
e.e. cummings’ “she being Brand” (handout; consider metaphor, imagery, diction, syntax, rhythm, and the odd capitalization, line breaks, and spacing)
(“We Real Cool” with a minute and a half of explanation from Brooks)
(Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song”)