LITR 5535: American Romanticism
Student Student Poetry Presentation, summer 2002

Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays,” N 2631

Poetry Reader:  Kellye Nye
Recorder: Kayla Logan
Thursday, 20 June 

            Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” must be looked at from two perspectives.  The first perspective is the emotion one experiences after reading the poem; the other is the specific diction the author chose to include.  The poem’s emotion reflects Romanticism because it evokes the emotions of the reader and establishes a nostalgia for childhood that both the speaker and the reader can share.  However, the word choices in the poem are in many cases more realistic than romantic.

            The non-romantic diction appears in the circumstance depicted in the poem.  For example, nature is not romanticized.  It is described as “splintering and breaking,” something that must be “driven out.”  The images represented by the words “cracked hands” and “ached from labor” support this premise that weather is something to be endured.  Another example of non-romantic diction comes from the distanced relationship between the speaker and his subject.  The speaker “fears the chronic angers” and is “indifferent” to his father.  Simple statements such as “No one ever thanked him” show a realistic interpretation of the memory rather than a romanticized one.

            Still, this poem is romantic.  The images of the cold “splintering and breaking” can be seen as sublime—beautiful and chilling all at once.  The father in the poem is a common man, one who must labor outside for his family during the week and even must work in other ways on Sunday.  The poem is extremely emotional.  The memory and realization of his father’s love transcends the “chronic anger” he remembers.  His own emotions break as he asks, “What did I know, what did I know….” Romantic themes of love and loneliness, desire and loss, are present and exhibit the bittersweet nostalgia of love finally realized but never spoken.  This poem strikes a chord with readers because it confronts them with the memories (either good or bad) of their own childhood.

Question for discussion:  Why does Hayden repeat, “What did I know, what did I know….”?  Why is this line significant in making this poem romantic?

            I began the first part of the discussion by giving basic background information about Robert Hayden.  He was born in Detroit in 1913.  He had a rough upbringing in a poor part of Detroit called “Paradise Alley.”  Much domestic hostility exemplified his childhood.  He is a famous African-American poet best known for his collage technique used in his most famous poem “Middle Passage” about a series of events on slave ships.  Much of his other poetry is about personal experiences.  “Those Winter Sundays” is one such poem.

After introducing the author, I moved on to the poem.  I explained that “Those Winter Sundays” is a short but extremely powerful poem.  It is the emotions that first made me “feel” the Romanticism of it.  But upon dissecting the language of the poem, it is real.  There is no celebration of nature.  Nature is seen as harsh and cruel.  This is not romantic.  There is also harshness presented in relationships with “indifference” and the fact that “no one thanked him.”  However, when taken as a whole, the poem is romantic because it is about the common man, love, loneliness, and looking back at past experiences.  At this point I asked the related questions:  Why does the speaker repeat “What did I know, what did I know….”?  Why is it significant to making the poem Romantic?

During the discussion, Al said the repeated phrase was almost a lament.  The nostalgia is there even if he doesn’t recognize the love.  Only in reflection does he see the affection.  The speaker looks back at childhood with new eyes.  Krisann questioned if the speaker (who seems male) might have grown into a man who could not show love.  I added that the poem shows both directions—past to present and present to past—with a connection between the speaker and his father.  David added that the speaker never expressed his emotions to his father.  I responded that all the speaker had was the anger at the time of this memory, but now he had the feeling of it.  Because the speaker ends with love and loneliness, desire and loss, he shows that he finally “gets” it.  He desires what he lost now that he knows what it is.

  I continued this theme with the idea that nostalgia always seemed to me to be a synonym for sentimental (like how we look back on high school), but its real definition is bittersweet.  This poem is nostalgic because it mixes the bitter with the sweet, the anger with the love.  Al compared the poem to another called “My Papa’s Waltz.”  Only in reflection does the speaker see the complication that was his father.  He realizes his father was an alcoholic and now he is, too.  With maturity comes the fuller understanding of youth.  Jennifer responded that this poem is like a backwards quest.  The speaker reflected back to the past to reach realization.  I added that this reconnection is necessary to complete one’s true understanding of himself.

Lynda saw the poem as an individual experience.  This is a romantic quality.  Still, the poem’s experience is common to most children.  I agreed that it is a common experience to desire things we no longer have and can’t change.  Beth said that it’s like dating.  Parents say, “When you’re older….” It is a child’s desire to understand why his father did these things.  Dendy added that the speaker is a romantic hero because of his innocence and isolation.  Dr. White said the poem is the token of compensation for the father and the reader.  He connected the poem to the theme of “paradise lost” that was discussed in Cynthia’s presentation on Harriet Jacobs.  The same theme of paradise lost can be seen in this poem.  It is a universal idea: every child experiences this concept of “all needs are met.”  It is a parallel to Eden.  As one ages (gains experience) these needs are not provided.  No matter how bitter the situation, someone took care of him at one point.  As mean as his dad was, he still put the fire on.  Al made the similar connection to this universal idea by adding that Harriet Jacobs experienced this concept. 

I shared that biographers see Robert Hayden as a writer who records the loss of what others never noticed as missing. He discovers a significance in what was passed over.  And, memory for Hayden is an act of love that leads to self-awareness.  Dr. White added that the line in the question has a lyricism to it.  It sings.  I concluded with the idea that music (like laughter) connects the universal ideas associated with emotion so the musical quality helps the reader to connect to the Romantic emotions in the poem.