danger has passed. However, at this stage in life, the child does not recognize these efforts as the
understanding of situations is limited.
The ninth line brings about an image of the general mood in that house. It is not all pomp
and glory in the house. The poet describes the anger in the house as “chronic.” This is a strong
choice of word that may imply that it is catastrophic and unbearable. The poet does not tell of the
cause for the rage, but arguably, it can be a cause of many factors. A dejected father who feels
that his actions of pure love go unrecognized and thus lets the power of rage manifest in him as a
result. The anger can also be due to an unhappy marriage. It can also be due to frustrations of the
parents because of financial strain. It is clear from the first few lines that the family is not well
endowed financially as they even do not own a room heater to keep the cold out. Instead, his
father braves the morning cold to light firewood. The ninth line shows the kind of hardships
parents goes through to raise their kids. Some of the hardships cannot be understood by the
children and they cannot be able to come up with solutions to solve them. The only thing the
children envision is anger, or other feelings of negative emotions that they wrongly feel are
subjected to them.
The third stanza introduces us to the coldness of the persona towards his father:
“Speaking indifferently to him” (3. 10). The persona does not recognize his father’s efforts and
Surname 4
just talks to him with a bad attitude. This is evident in the common modern society among
children and their parents. The next lines depict about a regret by the persona: “who had driven
out the cold / and polished my good shoes as well.” (3. 11-12). The persona is now old enough to
figure out that what he did while a kid was wrong. It was unnecessary to be cold to his good
father. He now appreciates the actions of his father. Actions of love.
