Those Winter Sundays

This poem is short, but I feel it can be interpreted in many ways. When we were in our small groups, my group had a hard time on agreeing what was taking place. Some thought the father was abusive and others just thought it was the boy finally taking the time to understand all his father had done for him and the family. We never came to an agreement. The reason we saw the abusive viewpoint was because of the lines that say "fearing the chronic angers of that house", and "speaking indifferently to him". These lines offer dark personal feelings. We can definately tell there is a distance between the boy and his father. However, the rest of the poem speaks of his father's hardwork in the cold and how he trys to help the family. We see a sense of sympathy in the poem as well. ("no one ever thanked him")I am unsure of which is true because I can see both sides.