The Speaker

In "Those Winter Sundays," the adult speaker looks back at childhood experiences through the lens of adult realizations concerning love, duty, work, and sacrifice. Though readers should not automatically conflate the speaker and the poet, many critics often refer to the speaker in this poem as male, reflecting Hayden's own biography. However, the poem does not explicitly specify gender. What is clear is that as a child, the speaker exhibited an outwardly indifferent attitude (masking inner fear) toward the family patriarch. The speaker's father may have been angry, reticent, and emotionally distant, but he rose early even on weekends to set a fire and warm the household. At the end of the poem, the speaker recognizes those thankless unseen actions as expressions of love.

The Speaker's Father

The speaker's father is portrayed as a disciplined and hard-working man who performs physically depleting labor to provide for his...