Those winter Sundays
The first thing i noticed in this poem that struck me was the lower case "w" in the title! Now maybe this was Mrs. White's typo ;P but maybe it wasn't! interesting...
The first stanza of this poem sets up the position of the father in the family. The first line suggests he gets up early every morning, before everyone else, while the house is still cold. His hands are rough and represent the hard work he does all week long. He builds a fire and warms the house, but no one thanks him.. Everything seems normal and you begin to feel sympathy for the father until you read the second stanza... "fearing the chronic angers of that house." where were these "angers" coming from? Father? maybe... Why does the next stanza tell us the child speaks indifferently to the father? he's not concerned with him or how he's doing? What has made him so indifferent towards his own father? Maybe he is the source of anger in that house. In the last stanza, there was an unfamiliar word - austere. i looked it up and it means severe or stern in disposition or appearance, somber and grave. This stanza asks, "What did i know, what did I know/ Of love's austere and lonely offices?" this line now reminds me of "tough love." She knows her father lover her; he drove the cold out of the house and polished her good shoes. But maybe he wasn't always a nice man, and he didn't understand why. one possible antecedent scenario that i considered was a possible death of the father. This is the son remembering all those mornings his dad got up to warm the house and no one ever thanked him - and now it's too late.
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