“Those Winter Sundays” is a short poem about a childhood memory. The speaker recalls the actions of a father who each Sunday rises early to dutifully make a fire and polish the good shoes for his son. It’s only later on in life that the child becomes aware of the sacrifice his father, a hard-working parent, made.

What is the main idea of Those Winter Sundays?

Major Themes in “Those Winter Sundays”: Love, regret, and parenthood are the major themes in the poem. The poet provides some glimpses of his father’s struggle. He elaborates how his father used to spend his Sundays dutifully. He takes every pain to bring comfort at home and fulfill his responsibility as a father.

What does the last line of Those Winter Sundays mean?

But built into the final phrase of the poem—“love’s austere and lonely offices”—is an incredibly complex view of parental love. What are we getting at? Well, through the word “office,” love is presented as a duty, as a form of worship, as a responsibility, as an official job. It can be all those things at once.

What does the line love’s austere and lonely offices mean?

For a married couple love’s “lonely offices” are they places they stand without regard to personal pleasure. Because of love, friends and extended family never come first. Because of love, time and resources are sacrificed for things that hold little interest.

What is the mood of the poem Those Winter Sundays?

The tone of the poem is reflective in nature since it is a man looking back on his childhood with his father. It seems age and time give us wisdom and understanding, which is illuminated by the man talking about how foolish he was when it came to the concept of love in his youth.

Is the father abusive in Those Winter Sundays?

In this stanza of ‘Those Winter Sundays’, it seems, the idea that the father is abusive loses a portion of possibility as the speaker admits that his father had been there for him against the “cold” and through preparing his “good shoes,” and because the speaker in his older years describes his father’s feelings for

What does banked fires blaze mean?

He’s a tough cookie, and he makes the “banked fires blaze,” or, in other words, he lights all of the fires in the fireplaces to warm up the house so that no one else in his family will have to haul their butts out of bed in the blueblack cold.

What does the speaker realize by the conclusion of Those Winter Sundays?

He realizes that his father made sacrifices for him without expecting anything return, acting only out of love for his family. The poem thus presents parenting as selfless and often thankless work. The family dynamic between the father and son in “Those Winter Sundays” is not especially warm, open, or close.

What does the narrator care about in Those Winter Sundays?

In “Those Winter Sundays,” the narrator is making the point that our view of the past can change as we gain insight and perspective. The speaker now sees the love his father had for him in a way he couldn’t as a child.

What can you infer about the speaker in Those Winter Sundays?

What can you infer about the speaker in Those Winter Sundays? the adult speaker is caring. even on the weekends the father woke up early.

What is the significance of the phrase Sundays too in the first line of the poem?

In the first two lines, the reader can note one clue regarding the father’s ongoing work schedule since the speaker doesn’t just say “Sundays” were a day of work, but “Sundays too.” What that detail denotes is that the father has worked throughout the week, something that is such a given that the “weekday” workload

What literary devices are used in Those Winter Sundays?

Though “Those Winter Sundays” does not follow a set rhythm or use a rhyme scheme, it does use other poetic conventions to create rhythm and strong sounds. The most prominent of these devices are alliteration (the repeated use of consonant sounds) and assonance (the repeated use of vowel sounds).

What does the speaker realize by the conclusion of Those Winter Sundays?

He realizes that his father made sacrifices for him without expecting anything return, acting only out of love for his family. The poem thus presents parenting as selfless and often thankless work. The family dynamic between the father and son in “Those Winter Sundays” is not especially warm, open, or close.

Why is the multiple meaning of the word offices in line 14 important to the poem?

Why is the multiple meaning of the word “offices” in line 14 important to the poem? It refers to both a duty and a service done for others. It conveys the father’s mixed emotions.

What does banked fires blaze mean?

He’s a tough cookie, and he makes the “banked fires blaze,” or, in other words, he lights all of the fires in the fireplaces to warm up the house so that no one else in his family will have to haul their butts out of bed in the blueblack cold.

What can you infer about the speaker in Those Winter Sundays?

What can you infer about the speaker in Those Winter Sundays? the adult speaker is caring. even on the weekends the father woke up early.