A Lonely Love

In Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, the father is caring, helpful, and loving. The characterization of the father is conveyed through the imagery of the poem. The poem starts off with the father waking up early in the morning, in the darkness and in the cold weather. His hands are described as being chaffed, dry, and cracked. The description reveals a hard-working father whose hands must hurt as he prepares a fire to warm the house. Moreover, he is never thanked. The father must be very selfless since he continues to warm his family even when they do not thank him. Once the house was warm, the father would wake everyone up, only for his family to start bickering and fighting like most siblings do. His children are ungrateful for the warmth and all that he does. This continues to support the father's generosity and care for his family. At the end, love is revealed to be poignant and that sometimes loving others can be harsh, "what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?" (Hayden, 782).