Those Winter Sundays, written by Robert Hayden, depicts a father whose paternal generosity goes unappreciated by his son. Within the poem, the narrator recounts a time when he was still ignorant of and unreceptive to his father's love. This leads to a remorseful remembrance of his and his father's relationship.
             Early in the poem, the narrator establishes his father as a hard-working individual–"Sundays too my father got up early." This line clarifies that, in addition to other six days of the week, his father rose early on Sunday to work. In proceeding lines, Hayden suggests that this man's workweek consisted of menial, labor-intensive tasks: "then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze." Apparently, by Sunday morning, this man was tired and sore. The reader later discovers that he was driven, despite his exhaustion, by his love for his family – particularly his son.
             Aside from enduring the physical demands of both his job and familial obligations (such as staring a fire on Sunday mornings), the narrator's father also endured the emotional ingratitude of those around him: "No one ever thanked him." His work even went unappreciated by his son: "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." Although the "chronic angers" of the house are neither specifically mentioned nor discussed, it can be assumed that this was an unhappy household (at least in the eyes of the narrator). The narrator's "indifference" to his father suggests that he either blamed his father for the situation, or, at the very least, was unable to recognize the admirable intentions behind his father's labor. The final two lines of the poem further support the latter possibility: "What did I know,
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