In Response To “Those Winter Sunday’s” Essay, Research Paper

In Response to "Those Winter Sundays"

Being a child, is one of the hardest stages of ones life. They go through doing all the wrongs in order to do the right, and they socially develop into a mature and sensible human being. During this stage of a young child’s life, the roles of parenting are absolutely crucial. In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, I get a sense that the narrator does not have a special bond with his father, and that there is a sense of fear. I feel that in order to grow up and be a morally strong and stable person, you need a well-built relationship with at least one of you parents, if not both.

Growing up in a very suburban town taught me many things about being a boy and even further into my life as a young man. I spent most of my childhood days running through the woods, fishing in our pond, or helping my father with some project that he had around the house. I used to always come back to him with everything for help. He would be doing something in the garage, and I would catch a fish that had swallowed the hook. I would run up to the house, break his concentration, and he would come help me. He always did that, and never seemed to mind it was like it was his job to love me and teach me how to be a good person. In the poem, I get a sense that there is no bond, like my father and I have which leads to confusion in the narrator’s life. For instance, in line eight when he says "I would slowly rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of the house", this gives me a strong sense of sadness, for him because I feel that he is greatly deprived of what every child should have. I feel that the boy will regret not having and knowing what it is that makes you who you are, and may never get a chance to have and hold a special bond with one of the people who brought him into the world. This would bring an enormous amount of sadness to my life had I not had my Dad there to guide and protect me.

Even further along the road of life, I encounter instances where our relationship is still strong as I used to be. The only difference now is the fact that the roles are almost flipped. I am not teaching my father to be a good person, but I am protecting him. Not literally protecting him, but looking out for his well being. He comes to me when he needs help doing something that he necessarily cannot do as well as he used too, and I am always there to help him. I will never look at our relationship as a nuisance or a burden to my life, and will always be there willing to stop what I am doing to help him, just like he did for me. Unlike in the poem, Hayden does not claim that he did not help or be at his father assistance when he needed it or even tell him that he loved him, but he does say that he never did truly show how much he appreciated what his Dad would do for him. Now he states that he regrets never having that Father to son relationship like most do, and he wishes that he could have those times back to let his father know how he really felt.

So as I get older, and somewhat wiser, I begin to realize how much both my parents did for me. Not even just my father, but my mother too. I speak mostly of my Dad in this response only because the poem referred more to a father son relationship than a mother son relationship. I so strongly believe that a firm foundation of love and happiness in ones family is what brings love and happiness to ones future. In the poem "Those Winter Sundays", by Robert Hayden, the author leaves the reader with a feeling that there was no love in is childhood life, and he regrets not bringing the love that was there alive.