Robert Hayden "Those Winter Sundays"

Such a short poem but yet so much can be interpreted from it. When I first read it, I automatically thought of myself. Why you might ask? Well once again I will go back to my childhood in Ukraine. My family lived in a country where winters were very cold. All I can do is remember my mom waking up early to heat the house. Everyday, on top of everything else she did.
At first I had thought that the speaker or the voice of the poem is a young child. But as I read the poem once more I realized that it is clearly a grown up speaking. When you are a kid you don’t really understand why parents do the things they do. You just think they have to do it. I can almost see the regret in his eyes; maybe he is realizing that he wasn't the nicest kid in the world. Where do I get this idea you might ask? Well lets look at the last two lines of the poem. “What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” It is like the speaker is regretting some of the choices that he has made when he was young. Maybe he didn’t express the feelings of appreciation towards his father? But again as I read the poem I notice the line where he says: “fearing the chronic angers of the house.” Why would he say that? Unless he was angry at his father for something that has happened during their lives. So much to take in, and all up for grabs…
Also this poem is full of imagery. Almost every line you can picture yourself there. At least I can. The words are so descriptive and paint a great picture. I love it when a poem does this. I’m not a very big fan of poems where it leaves you hanging all the time. A poem, like a great book, should take the reader away from reality and make us put ourselves into their shoes. Hayden does a great job doing this with this poem.