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Danielle Fernandez
Prof. Grant
ENGL 102-019
16 April 2019
It Must Have Been Love
Thesis: In “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden implements the literary elements of
reflective and regretful tone into the poem to support his central theme about a child reflecting
back on their life and realizing that they took their father’s love for granted.
I.
Hayden uses the literary device of reflective tone to give the readers the insight of a
child looking back on their life and remembering all of the things their father did.
a.
Throughout the whole poem, the speaker is reminiscing on their childhood. This
is made obvious by Hayden using the past tense throughout the poem.
b.
Hayden describes a typical Sunday morning in the speaker’s house, explaining
that even on the weekend when the father is not working, he still gets up early.
“Sundays too my father got up early” (Hayden 1).
II.
Hayden also uses the literary device of regretful tone to express the shamefulness and
regret that the speaker feels throughout the poem, for how they treated their father
when they were a child.
a.
The speaker is looking back at their childhood and making note of them never
thanking their father for the things he did around the house, “No one ever thanked
him” (Hayden 5). The speaker was not grateful for what the father did for the
house on the father’s days off.
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b.
At the end of the poem, the speaker realizes that love is lonely and harsh. “What
did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Hayden 14).
