The title of Hayden's poem creates a mood, tone, and setting. Winter is a time of retreat and frigid weather, and imagery of cold permeates the poem. Coldness is also the core emotion that the speaker conveys. The cold is "blueblack," which also signals a possible bruise, as if the father was indeed abusive. The father had "cracked hands that ached," which were not from the cold, though, but from his hard work, his labor in the "weekday weather."

Imagery of "splintering and breaking" is contrasted with the powerful last line of "Those Winter Sundays," which refers to "love's austere and lonely offices." Love is neither austere nor lonely in Simon Ortiz's "My Father's Song." In "My Father's Song," the imagery is far more summery. Like the speaker in "Those Winter Sundays," the speaker in "My Father's Song" refers to his dad's manual labor in the fields. Yet labor did...
[ View Full Essay]