1. “Those Winter Sundays”
Poetry Analysis
Mrs. Kate Hendrix
Pre-AP English II
Madison Central High School

2. The Title of the Poem
Think about what the title “Those Winter Sundays” means to you.
On your paper, write 2-3 sentences describing a typical “winter Sunday” at your house.
What do you think this poem might be about?
Throughout the day all of you will be reading various responses aloud! Be prepared!

3. Read the Poem
As you read, keep in mind the speaker’s attitude toward his father.

4. Read Literally Put a slash mark (/) at the end of each SENTENCE.
Beside the poem, write a paraphrase of each sentence in the poem.

5. SOAPStone
SOAPStone is an acronym to remind you to ask yourself several questions about a poem to establish some background for understanding.
S = subject of the poem. What is the poem about?
O = occasion. What is the time and place of the poem and what might have prompted the poet to write it?
A = audience. To whom is the poet writing?
P = purpose. What is the poet’s purpose? Is it to express emotion, or tell a story, or convince someone (the audience) something?
S = speaker. What do you know about the speaker, based on what is in the poem?
Tone = tone. How would you initially describe the speaker’s tone based on the SOAPS?

6. SOAPStone
With a partner, complete the SOAPStone analysis on each of your papers (10 minutes)
S ________________________________________
O ________________________________________
A ________________________________________
P ________________________________________
Tone _____________________________________

7. Levels of Questions
Level 1: Questions for which the answer can be found in the text itself (on the line)
Write a Level 1 question for each of the 5 sentences in the poem.
Answer your own questions, using textual evidence (QUOTES!) to support them.
Ex. Sentence 1 – Level 1 question and answer:
Question: What days did the speaker’s father get up to make a fire?
Answer: Every day, “Sundays too”

8. Levels of Questions
Level 2: Questions for which the reader must make inferences based on the text (between the lines)
Write a Level 2 question for each of the 5 sentences in the poem.
Answer your own questions, using textual evidence to support them.
Ex. Sentence 1 – Level 2
Question: What kind of man was the speaker’s father?
Answer: He was hardworking, with “hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather,” and he took care of his family even on “Sundays…made banked fires blaze.”

9. Levels of Questions
Level 3: Questions which move outside the text to larger questions that are universal (beyond the lines)
For the poem as a whole, write a level 3 question and answer it using textual evidence to support it.

10. Levels of Questioning
In 1-2 sentences, explain how asking questions makes you understand the poem better.
You can’t say that it doesn’t help you…it SHOULD help you. If it doesn’t help you, you’re not working hard enough!

11. Devices Linked to Meaning
Complete the chart that I will hand out to you.
Comment on at least two examples each of diction, imagery, and details
The rest of the rows may be completed with whichever of those three literary elements you choose
Basically, you can’t just do all imagery, for example
You may work with a partner, but both partners must complete the chart in full!
Label your chart with your name then indicate your partner’s name on the line where it asks for your partner’s name.

12. Shifts
When trying to understand and analyze a speaker’s tone, it is always important to look for complexity in that tone.
In other words, a speaker in a poem rarely feels only one way about the subject, so look for shifts or changes in the poem.
Those shifts can be revealed by changes in verb tense, point-of-view, diction choices, or images.
When identifying a speaker’s tone, use more than one adjective to describe it.
If you need help thinking of good words, use that TONE chart I gave you at the beginning of the year!

13. Shifts
In this poem, does the speaker’s attitude toward his father seem to be the same throughout the poem? If not, where does the shift in attitude occur? Explain.
What adjective would you use to describe the speaker’s tone before the shift?
Provide textual evidence to support that assertion.
What adjective would you use to describe the speaker’s tone after the shift?

14. Writing Assignment
After reading and analyzing the poem, write a paragraph in which you explain how the poet’s use of diction, imagery, and details reveals the speaker’s complex attitude toward his father.
If we run out of time in class, this is homework!