Point of View

“Those Winter Sundays” is told from the first-person perspective of a speaker reflecting on a childhood misunderstanding. Readers have access to the young speaker’s observations and later present-day reflection. It took years and maturation for the speaker to understand the father’s work as a wordless expression of love. As a child, the speaker spoke “indifferently to [the father], / who had driven out the cold / and polished [his] good shoes as well” (10-11). It is unclear whether this indifference resulted from fear of “the chronic angers of that house” or just from general childhood ignorance (9). Perhaps a mixture of both prevented the speaker from traversing the father’s stoic reticence and bridging the distance between them. Either way, the present-day speaker is gripped in a vise of guilt over not having expressed love or gratitude toward the father in return for his sacrifices. This...