"Those Winter Sundays"

I choose the poem “Those Winter Sundays” because it reminded me a lot of my dad. Like the speaker’s father, my father too works in a job that requires manual labor. The winter is a tough season for many families, regardless of their occupation. The way the father does all these favors and it kind of goes unnoticed. If I had to guess, I think this poem would have been written after Hayden’s father died. The author describes the speaker’s hands in great deal to show his labor and long life. He also tells a story of how his father would take great care of the fire during the winter. He describes the “blueblack cold” he’d have to experience if it were not for his father. In the last two lines it seems that the author truly regrets his inability to appreciate his fathers hard labor. He says, “What did I know, What did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” As a child, Hayden probably did not understand what hard work truly was. For most children it is very hard to appreciate what parents do. No baby says thank you for changing a diaper, as a teenager the “thank yous” for rides did not come often, and the lunches packed, and meals made become an expectation. Many people do not realize what their parents do for them until those children become parents and are forced to do those same tasks. The author mostly uses imagery to convey this message of appreciating what you have.