Imagery In Those Winter Sundays

The speaker in the poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, by Robert Hayden, reveals both his loving and regretful feelings about his father by using symbolization, diction, and a regretful, “if only” tone, which are all reflected by the “angry home”. Hayden uses symbolization to convey the child’s feelings for the father. The speaker would “rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of that house.” The reader can imagine a child nervously getting out of bed to see his or her father. The bed is a symbol of escape in the poem, because it was the child’s only place they could hide from the home he or she feared. The angry house symbolizes an angry relationship inside the house, most likely between the mother and father. This limited the chance of a good relationship between them. The child is scared of putting in effort because interfering with the “angry house” could make the situation worse. This is why the child stayed in bed. The father would also have “cracked hands that ached”. The father worked extremely hard, which shows that he loved the child. If he didn’t, then he wouldn’t have worked so hard. But his hands symbolized the relationship between them: cracked and broken. Even though
The “blueblack cold”, “cracked hands”, and “splintering, breaking” cold all have very sharp consonants. The connotations of these words are all negative, sad, and chilling. These all relate to the child’s feelings at that time. These words made the reader feel sad and negative, especially when coming from the angry house. Since the father did all of the hard work outside during the winter, the child felt regretful. The child wanted to help, but felt like there was a limit to which he or she could help because of the house. Their relationship wasn’t close enough for the child to go and help outside, or even ask for help, which made the child