"Those Winter Sundays"

"Those Winter Sundays"
by Robert Hayden

This poem kind of made me sad- the imagery and indirect characterization of the father created a sense of pathos; I pitied the solitary but loving father.  The indirect characterization, the actions of the father, tell the reader that the father is a dedicated and hardworking man who loves his children and takes very good care of them. "...him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well" (Hayden, 782).  The father labors tirelessly during the week, then on the weekends, he gets up early in the bitter cold to make the house warm for his family. And "no one ever thanked him" (Hayden, 781).  The cold is imagery that is used a lot to show the hardships and pain the father goes through to care for his children.  He suffers for them.  I definitely feel an amount of pity for the man, and I hope now that the speaker is looking back on it, he realizes how much his father truly loved him and cared for him.