Janel Blackwell
English 102
Ms. Wallig
17 September 2019
A Silent Regret
A father’s unspoken and unappreciated love is the theme of “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert
Hayden. At first glance the poem exposes a cold and distant relationship between a father and
son that is never resolved. In taking a closer look, the poem reveals the regret a boy, who is now
grown feels for not acknowledging the sacrifices his father made for his family and an unsaid
love his dad expressed through his actions. This poem is a sonnet at the most basic level being
that it is a fourteen- line poem that is in open form with no formal rhyme scheme. Most sonnets
are about love, and this poem is no exception, only this love is a complicated one between and
father and son.
It consist of 3 stanzas that each evoke different emotions that contribute to the
overall theme and feel of the poem.
The opening stanza of the poem begins by describing a father waking up early in the prime of a
Sunday morning in his freezing home to start his daily task of warming the house for his family.
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