Tone: "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

Born and raised in a poor neighborhood in Detroit between his parents and a foster family next door, Robert Hayden wrote astounding poetry with his emotions. He became the first black American to be appointed as the poet laureate to the Library of Congress.

 

 

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blue-black cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

 

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking,

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house

 

Speaking indifferently to him,

who ad driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love's austere and lonely offices?

 

 

The poem’s attitudes or feelings toward a theme are known as the tone; it is how the theme is presented throughout the poem. Tone is related with style and diction and it is the style and diction which present the speaker’s feelings towards a certain topic. Short lines, an abundance of punctuation, and words are all things that may contribute towards the tone of a poem.
                Even with a direct theme there is always more to a poem than meets the eye. On the surface this poem is about the cold winter and how a father helps to provide warmth. Yet, if we look deeper we see that this poem has a central theme of love and need. The tone that the speaker provides to us through his 3 stanza poem is how he feels about the theme. The speaker cannot understand his father’s expression of love which is noted at the end by diction with the words “love’s austere and lonely offices.” The speaker’s tone is dually noted in his final lines when he says, “What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” these words are full of remorse and sadness. The speaker comes upon understanding with age that his father did love him but showed it in different ways. We can feel the speaker’s pain and sorrow through the words used throughout the poem. The frequent use of commas also provides pauses which stop us to reflect. This poem has a deeper meaning that is found with the tone—love is about responsibility but it is also about emotions and empathy and we can feel through the poem that our speaker craves just that—and emotional love.