PREPARED &

PRESENTED**Pooja.R.S**

English OptionalReg No.13389004M.I.T.E Chavarode

The Poem

THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS

By

-Robert

Hayden

About the Author

• Name:Robert Hayden

• Born:1913,August-4

• Nationality:America

• Occupation:Poet,Essayist,Educator

• Major works:The Whipping,Middle Passage,Runagate,Those winder sundays

• Died:1980,February-25

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden, 1913 - 1980 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?

GLOSSARY REFERENCE

Blueblack cold-Extreme cold

Blaze-Brightly

Banked-Burning slowly without fire

SCAFFOLDING QUESTIONS1.Who is the speaker in the poem ?

2.What does the phrase “Sundays too” mean ?

3.How is “Sunday” contrasted with “weekday” ?

4.Pick out the lines that show that the son

loves his father ?

5.Does the Poet regret his attitude as boy to

father now ?

Literary Activity

• The poem contrasts “the cold climate of the winter season” and “the warmth of the fire kindled by the father”. Pickout the lines in the poem which suggests the contrasts.

Activity• Poetic image is a sensuous picture in words.

e.g: “Blueblack cold in this poem appeal to our sense of sight.The expression “cold splintering” appeals to our sense of hearing.The expression “warm rooms” appeals to our sense of touch.

In this way find out and classify other images into visual, auditory and tactile images.

Home Assignment• Collect different poems on the

parent-child relationship.

Thank you