Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

"Those Winter Sundays"

(1962)

 

Robert Hayden

(August 4, 1913 – February 25, 1980)

 

 

      

Draft, National Bahá'í Archives




A Ballad of Remembrance (1962)
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the stiffening cold,
and then with hands cracked and aching
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering
and breaking and smell the trellised blooming of
the velvet heat. When the rooms were warm,
he'd call me. Sighing I would rise and dress,
dreading the chronic angers of that house,

Dreading my father's kindness most of all;
and had but monosyllables for him
who'd driven out the cold -- who had as well
polished my best shoes. What did I know
of love's austere and rich and lonely offices?		 1
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15		   1
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 		 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?
 

 


"Those Winter Sundays" Notes

This poem was first published in A Ballad of Remembrance (1962), Hayden's fifth poetry collection.

 

1  Sundays:

 

14  austere:



      

Study Questions

  • Read the definitions of the word "office" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Which meanings do you think Hayden makes use of here?

 

 



Sample Student Responses to Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" 


   

Response 1:

Study Question:

 

 

 

 

 

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

June 12, 2013

Reading Response 1

  

Title

 

Text.

 

 

 

 

 

            

 


 


Links

 


Performances

  • Lunch Poems: Vikram Chandra, University of California Television (2010; video clip, 3:19 min.; Chandra introduces the poem then reads it)

  • Youssef Biaz reads 'Those Winter Sundays," Poetry Out Loud (2011; video clip, 3:20 min.)

 


Robert Hayden

 



 

Reference




 

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Last updated June 2, 2013