Uploaded April 2013 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Those Winter Sundays - A Poem by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
About the poem - This is Hayden's most famous and anthologized poem which deals with the memory of fatherly love and loneliness. His other famous works include the 'Middle Passage', 'Runagate, Runagate', 'Frederick Douglass'.
About the poet - Robert Hayden (4 August 1913 -- 25 February 1980) was an American poet, essayist, educator. Hayden was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (the first African-American holder of that post), the position that in 1985 became the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Hayden's influences included Wylie, Cullen, Dunbar, Hughes, Bontemps, Keats, Auden and Yeats. Hayden's work often addressed the plight of African Americans.
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Those Winter Sundays - A Poem by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
About the poem - This is Hayden's most famous and anthologized poem which deals with the memory of fatherly love and loneliness. His other famous works include the 'Middle Passage', 'Runagate, Runagate', 'Frederick Douglass'.
About the poet - Robert Hayden (4 August 1913 -- 25 February 1980) was an American poet, essayist, educator. Hayden was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (the first African-American holder of that post), the position that in 1985 became the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Hayden's influences included Wylie, Cullen, Dunbar, Hughes, Bontemps, Keats, Auden and Yeats. Hayden's work often addressed the plight of African Americans.
For more videos log onto youtube.com/pearlsofwisdom
Also find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pearlsofwisdomchannel
Subscribe & Stay Tuned - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=pearlsofwisdom
