The Winter Days

As I read "Those Winter Days" by Robert Hayden, I got a sense of the father's character. When it says "Sundays too my father got up early" (Hayden, 781), we get the sense that the father gets up really early every day. "With cracked hands that ached from labor" (Hayden, 781), shows that the father was a hard worker. It also gives a bit of information that his weekday job was hard labor. "No one ever thanked him" (Hayden, 781). This quote told me that either his children or the society never thanked him for all he does and for all his hard work. Maybe the father feels under appreciated and over worked. I also got a sense of love for his boys while reading this poem. He only woke them up from bed when the house was warm and got them ready in the morning every day.

 However, the narrator says that as a boy he didn't know of his father's loneliness and feelings.   "Speaking indifferently" (Hayden, 781), the narrator didn't show his father affection in the mornings or show gratitude for all the things his father worked for. When it says that his father "had driven out the cold" (Hayden, 781), this could also symbolize that athe father had driven out the hardships or stresses in his child's life.