Summary

The speaker's father used to get up early every day of the week, including Sundays. During cold seasons the father would get up in the frigid darkness to get dressed, his hands cracked and hurting from his weekly labor. Nonetheless, he would set a fire to warm the household every Sunday morning without fail. No one in the family thanked him for his efforts.

In the second stanza, the speaker goes on to describe the sounds of the fire, which drove away the cold with intense force. Once the fire sufficiently warmed the house, the speaker's father would call out. The speaker, anxious not to provoke the "chronic angers of that house," would get up and dressed (9). In the final stanza, the speaker remembers speaking indifferently toward the man who got up early on his only day off, set a fire to warm the...