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Those Winter Sundays

By Robert Hayden

Skill Focus
Levels of Thinking
Remember Understand Apply Analyze
Close Reading Grammar Composition
Reading Strategies Parts of Speech Types (modes)
Determining Main Idea Phrases Expository
Generalization Prepositional analytical
Inference Clauses The Process of Composition
Paraphrase Dependent/Subordinate Prewriting
Summary Sentences generation of ideas
Literary Elements Purpose organization of ideas
Character declarative Structural Elements
motivation interrogative Body
Detail Structure incorporation of quotes
Diction complex topic sentence
connotation Analysis of a Text use of commentary
denotation Meaning and Effect related to parts use of evidence
vocabulary of speech, phrases, clauses,
Imagery sentences, and syntax
Mood
Point of View
person
perspective
Setting
Style
Theme
Tone
tone determined through
diction, imagery, detail,
point of view, and syntax
tone shift
multiple tones
vocabulary associated with
tone
Sound Devices
Consonance
Onomatopoeia
Literary Techniques
Characterization
direct
indirect
Symbolism
Literary Forms
Verse
Elements of Research
Use of Print Sources

Materials and Resources


Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, included


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Teacher OverviewThose Winter Sundays

Lesson Introduction
This lesson guides students through an analysis of a poem that explores the relationship between
the speaker and his father. Close reading activities focus on connotative diction, imagery, and
sound devices that help students discern the speaker and his perspective, the setting, and the
atmosphere. Students analyze sentence structures and examine words that have more than one
meaning and that can be used as different parts of speech to unlock meaning in the poem. The
lesson culminates with a writing activity in which students discuss the speakers shift in attitude
toward his father.


Copyright 2010 Laying the Foundation , Inc., Dallas, TX. All rights reserved. Visit: www.layingthefoundation.org
Those Winter Sundays
By Robert Hayden

Pre-Reading Activity
In this lesson you will analyze a poem called Those Winter Sundays. Think about what this
title means to you. In the space below, write two or three sentences describing a typical winter
Sunday at your house.

Read carefully the poem Those Winter Sundays and answer the questions that follow.

Sundays too my father got up early


and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. (5)

Id wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.


When the rooms were warm, hed call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, (10)


who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of loves austere and lonely offices?

Those Winter Sundays from COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT HAYDEN by Robert Hayden, edited by Fredrick Glaysher.
Copyright 1966 by Robert Hayden. Reprinted with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Copyright 2010 Laying the Foundation , Inc., Dallas, TX. All rights reserved. Visit: www.layingthefoundation.org
Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

Activity One: Paraphrasing


1. Using a slash mark (/), indicate the end of each sentence in this poem. How many sentences

are there?

2. The first sentence of the poem provides some very important information about the speakers
father, but the structure of this sentence is somewhat complex. Read this sentence again:

Sundays too my father got up early


and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze.
a. If we eliminate the subordinate clause describing the fathers hands (that ached/from
labor in the weekday weather) and the prepositional phrases (in the blueblack cold and
with cracked hands), we are left with this kernel sentence:

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on, then made banked fires
blaze.

To be sure you understand what this sentence means, first find and underline once the
subject of the sentence and underline twice each verb in the main clause.

b. Now look carefully at the words that remain.


The first word in the sentence reminds us that these actions took place on Sunday. What
is the significance of the word too immediately following Sundays?

What specific actions took place on Sundays too?

What kind of fire is a banked fire?

Why is it important that the father made these fires blaze?

Why did the father get up early to make these banked fires blaze?


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

c. Now look at the subordinate clause that describes the fathers hands: that ached/from
labor in the weekday weather.

What connotations does the word labor have that another word like work would not
have?

What does the phrase in the weekday weather suggest about the kind of work the father
did?

Why do you suppose the fathers hands ached when he built up the fire?

Notice that the word cold, which is often an adjective, is used in this sentence as a noun,
the object of the preposition in.

3. In your own words, paraphrase this first sentence of the poem.

4. Now paraphrase each of the other sentences in the poem.

5. Write one or two complete sentences to answer this question: Who do you think the speaker
in the poem is? Include details in the poem for support.


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

Activity Two: Diction


1. In the chart below, list all of the verbs (not participles) in the poem.

Present tense verbs Past tense verbs Future tense verbs

2. What tense are most of the verbs in the poem?

What does this tell you about the events being described in the poem?

What additional information does this give you about the speaker in the poem?

3. List below all of the nouns in this poem. (Hint: There are 15.) Circle the one that is repeated
several times.

What connotations does this repeated noun have for you?

Why do you think the writer might have wanted to repeat it in the poem?


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

Synaesthesia is a literary device in which one kind of sensation is described in terms of


anothersounds or odors might be described using colors, etc. For example, sad music might be
described as being blue.

4. Find an example in the poem of a word that is used to describe the cold by appealing to a
different sense.

How does the use of this word heighten the feeling of coldness in the poem?

5. Look carefully at this phrase from line 14: loves austere and lonely offices.
Following are some definitions for the word office.
1
the place where an individual or organization conducts its business, or those who work there
2
a federal agency in the U.S. government, beneath a department in rank
3
a position in a corporate or governmental organization, especially one entailing authority,
responsibility, or trust
4
an act, usually a favor or service, done for another

a. Which definition of office seems to fit the context of the poem best? Justify your
answer.

Following are some definitions for the word austere.


1
severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding
2
rigorously self-disciplined; abstinent
3
grave; sober; solemn; serious
4
without excess, luxury, or ease; simple; severe

b. Which definition of austere seems to fit the context of the poem best? Justify your
answer.

6. Go back to Activity 1 and read your paraphrase of the final two lines of the poem. Would you
paraphrase these lines differently now? Explain your answer.


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

7. Look carefully at lines 89: and slowly I would rise and dress,/fearing the chronic angers of
that house. Look up the word chronic in a dictionary and write the definition that best fits
the meaning of this word as it is used in the poem.

___________________________________________________________________________

a. What are some possible causes for the chronic anger in the house?

b. Which reason do you think makes the most sense in the context of the poem? Justify your
answer.

___________________________________________________________________________

c. Draw a symbol that could represent the idea of chronic anger. Be prepared to explain
your symbolism.

Activity Three: Syntax


1. How is the sentence that begins and ends in line 5 different from the other sentences in the
poem?

2. How does this sentence make you feel about the relationship between the father and the
speaker?

How do you think the speaker feels about the fact stated in this sentence?

3. How is the sentence in lines 1314 different from the other sentences in the poem?


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

To whom do you think this sentence is addressed? Why?

4. What words are repeated in this sentence?

How does the repetition of these words affect the tone of the poem?

5. How is the sentence in lines 1314 connected to the sentence in line 5?

Activity Four: Sound Devices


1. In Activity 2 you noted the repetition of the word cold. List below other words from the
poem that include the hard c or k sound. Some have been done for you.

Stanza 1: clothes, blueblack

Stanza 2:

Stanza 3:

2. How do these words reinforce the image of coldness in the house?

3. Look at the frequency of these words in the three stanzas. Why are there fewer of them in the
third stanza than in the first stanza?

___________________________________________________________________________

Activity Five: Tone


1. Does the speakers attitude toward his father seem to be the same throughout the poem? If
not, where does the shift in attitude occur? Explain.


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Student ActivityThose Winter Sundays

2. Complete the following paragraph by filling in the blanks with appropriate words.

The speaker in this poem remembers from his childhood.


(adjective and noun)

He describes the in the house, using words like


(noun)

, , and .
(direct evidence) (direct evidence) (direct evidence)

These words show the of the environment in which he lived. The


(noun)

speaker remembers that, even before he got out of bed, his father would
(fathers action)

and . As a child, the speaker felt


(fathers action)

toward his fathers actions, which he showed by


(feeling) (sons action)

and . With time, however, the speaker realizes


(sons action)

that his fathers actions showed his for his family, and he
(feeling)

regrets that .
(direct evidence)

When the speaker asks the question


(direct evidence)

at the end of the poem, the reader sees that the speaker now feels

toward his father and wishes that


(feeling) (commentary based on evidence in poem)


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