Those Winter Sundays

"Those Winter Sundays" takes the reader back to a memory of when they weren't as thankful as they should have been forcing them to wipe a tear from their face.  Robert Hayden used incredible imagery in describing his father and how he sacrificed for his family's well being. From the "cracked hands that ached" to the "blackbaud cold" that "splinter[ed] and [broke]" Hayden was able to create a scene in the reader's head of this family's home and the father working hard to "drive out the cold." 
The first stanza the speaker, an adult reflecting on his childhood, creates the image of his dad. The father had cracked, aching hands due to strenuous work during the week. This told that in addition to waking up early in the morning in order to warm the house so his family is comfortable that he worked just as hard during the week to make sure that his family is able to afford food and other necessities. It is also able to be inferred that they were not a wealthy family. Not only would a wealthy family have a housekeeper to warm the house for them but the father would not have a job that left his hands cracked and aching. The father in this poem most likely had a job in the middle class. In the last line of this stanza the speaker says, "No one ever thanked him."  
In the second stanza Hayden continues his the story of his father and reveals to the readers that his house was filled with "chronic anger". However it is also revealed that despite no one thanking him his father was still thoughtful and would wait until it was warm in the house before waking up his family. With such few words used, Hayden did a fantastic job carefully choosing words such as "splintering" and "breaking. If he had chosen to just say it was very cold the poem would not have the same effect on the reader. 
"What did I know, what did I know/ of love's austere and lonely offices" those were the last two lines of the poem which were so moving. The first line used repetition to engage the reader and pull out their emotions by exposing his regret of the misuse of his father. According to the speaker the speaker's father was very caring and loved him dearly yet the speaker never accepted his father's love. He rather focused on the unfortunate qualities that his father had such as his anger. Overall, however, "Those Winter Sundays" was an outstanding poem that inspired the reader to reflect upon themselves on relationships in their lives that they might be abusing. For myself this poem has taught me to have a greater appreciation for all the work my mom does to provide for us and Robert Hayden did an excellent job involving the reader in feeling how the speaker felt.