Sundays too my father got up early
-- The Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: In the opening line, the speaker introduces the father's weekly domestic tradition. The adverb "too" emphasizes the way the father rose early nearly every other day of the week in order to provide for his family. Sunday is often considered to be a day of rest and/or worship.

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather
-- The Speaker (Lines 2-4)

Importance: The speaker's father does not take advantage of Sundays to rest. On the contrary, he gets up in the freezing darkness like any other workday. These lines indicate that the father does manual labor to earn a living. The repetition of the "k" sound reinforces the harshness of the father's conditions.

No one ever thanked him.
-- The Speaker (Line 5)

Importance: The speaker realizes later in life that no one in the family acknowledged the father's sacrifice. The...