Baha'i Language Educators: Kathryn Barlow presentation

Study of "Those Winter Sundays," a poem by Robert Hayden

Kathryn Barlow

presented at the Bahá'í Language Educators Special Interest Group session
Association for Bahá'í Studies conference, Friday August 30, 2002
The economy of language in poetry provides good language teaching opportunities. My experience with this poem is that students understand the speaker's regret and the loving actions of the father, but have more difficulty understanding the negative aspects of the home situation. They tend to think only that, as a child, the speaker took his father's love for granted rather than that, because of the negative atmosphere in the household, the speaker was not able to recognize the father's actions as loving. The object then is to help students understand how the compressed language suggests there is more to the situation than the obvious.

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden (1913 - 1980)

Bahá'í poet who saw his poetry as "a form of prayer; a prayer for illumination,
perfection"
had a strong interest in African-American history
parents: Ruth and Asa Sheffey (divorced)
neighbours/foster parents: Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden
tumultuous childhood in a poor neighbourhood of Detroit
Studied at Detroit City College (Wayne State University); MA from University of Michigan;
taught by Auden
married Erma Morris in 1940
taught at Fisk University and University of Michigan

Lesson Plan

vocabulary
Make sure students understand literal meanings.

austere: 1) severely simple; 2) morally strict; 3) harsh, stern (Oxford Concise)
banked: At night the fire is covered with fuel and the air supply lessened to keep it smoldering but not burning actively.
offices: 5) position with duties attached; 9) piece of kindness or attention, a service; 10) authorized form of worship (Oxford Concise)

analysis
Ask students to:

describe the father (has "cracked hands" which "ache"; works outside "in the weekday weather", probably doing manual labour; these suggest that he is a "hard" or "tough" man; gets up early every day "Sundays too" before daylight "blueblack cold"; pokes the fire to warm the house "made/banked fires blaze"; calls the speaker to get up when the house is warm; polishes the child's shoes. How might the father feel because of poverty, hard work, sore body, indifferent attitude of child(ren)? Is he angry? How might he act?)
describe the household (probably poor - the father is a labourer, but there are "good shoes" which suggests more than one pair However, there are "chronic angers" in the house. Ask students what they think the "chronic angers" might be. There are indications, through word choice, that the father is not gentle. The child is fearful. No mother is mentioned; no other children are mentioned, but "No one ever thanked him." implies the possibility of others in the household. There isn't much warmth in the meager conversation "speaking indifferently".)
describe the speaker (The speaker is an adult looking back at childhood and putting a positive spin on a negative situation; e.g. past tense verbs, "what did I know" means 'I know something different now'. As a child, the speaker is afraid of "chronic angers", thus he gets up "slowly." The speaker "never thanked" the father. He seems to take the father's actions for granted. Is it because he is young, or is he simply rude or is it more complex? The speaker speaks "indifferently" to the father. Why? Is it the result of fear? Are the "chronic angers" like "banked fires" that may "blaze" with a poke - perhaps the wrong word? (no definitive answers here) As an adult, the speaker feels regret (repetition of line 13). What does he regret - his treatment of his father, his father's situation, a combination, something else? In hindsight he sees the father as not only harsh and volatile but also as loving and caring "love's austere and lonely offices".)

imagery

There is tension between warmth and cold in this poem. "rooms were warm" is the only overt image of warmth. While blazing fires implies heat, the fact that the fires are "banked" - controlled - lessens the intensity of heat. That plays nicely into the "chronic angers" and suggests that these angers may become acute - may "blaze". Thus we get the idea that the father has a simmering anger that may boil over at any moment. Because the speaker is afraid of the "chronic angers", we infer that the atmosphere in the household must be tense, even cold. In fact cold as an image is much more apparent. The word "cold" appears in each stanza. Ask students to examine its use. First there is "blueblack cold." This indicates both the time of day (before dawn) and the intensity of the cold. Next the cold is "splintering, breaking." This suggests that it is brittle like glass or ice. It is not a gentle image of gradual warming but an image of harshness that relates to the father's act and thus to the father himself, but at the same time it does indicate warming. Finally the cold has been "driven out." Again, the action implies force and even relentlessness. On the other hand, the cold has been dissipated, in much the same way that the coldness of the speaker's childhood attitude towards his father has given way to the warmer (more sympathetic) adult recognition that the father's actions were an indication of parental love.

syntax/grammar/word use/word choice

Of course the repetition of "What did I know" is obvious and most students realize this rhetorical question indicates regret, sadness, maybe even remorse. Is this feeling for the childhood situation? the father's life? the lack of gratitude? - again no definitive answer.
You might point out the difference in words used for father and speaker regarding the morning routine: "got up"/"would rise"; "put his clothes on"/(would)"dress". You might ask students to speculate on what differences these words indicate.
These are habitual actions but expressed differently.
Connotations are important; e.g. "splintering, breaking." Something is being destroyed. On one level it is certainly the cold temperature of the house; on another it may be the child's understanding of the father. To some students anger may be associated with heat, to others cold.
Calling the actions of the father "offices" also gives them special status. These are not merely parental duties, but with this word, become a form of worship in addition.

culture

Sunday is a special day, a day of rest. However "too" indicates that it is not so different for the father. Sunday is the day for going to church to worship God. "good shoes" suggests that this family does indeed go to church, for traditionally people would put on their best clothes to go to church.

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