Those Winter Sundays

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1962

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Racial Context: The Black Poet vs. the Poet Who Is Black

Throughout the history of African American art in America, tension resides. Many people view art created by African Americans through the lens of race; others view Black artists as artists first instead of as artists of color. Hayden was of the latter opinion. He believed his legacy was as a poet who was Black, not as a Black poet. Many of Hayden’s contemporaries in the 1960s and 70s believed the former, arguing that Black artists had a responsibility to be “Black poets” instead of being “poets who are Black.”

The tension between these two schools of thought played a significant role in Hayden’s life. His main literary output came during the height of the 1960s civil rights movement and during the rise of the Black Power movement. Many of his contemporaries took part in revolutionary and radical progressive political action. And while Hayden wrote many poems about the Black experience, Black history, and figures of the civil rights movement (such as Malcolm X), many of his peers attacked his adherence to traditional forms, style, and non-Black subject matter.

“Those Winter Sundays” is not a poem about race. It does not mention race, and it does not allude to race. But the lived experience of a Black person who grew up in a segregated, poor, urban area during a time of great racial prejudice and strife informs the poem. Because of this, a reader might ask whether it is appropriate to view this poem through the context of race.

Hayden would say no. Others would say yes. Ultimately, the decision is the reader’s. Both perspectives (the Black poet / the poet who is Black) are valid.

Literary Context: Form vs. Free Verse/Tradition vs. Progress

“Those Winter Sundays” is sometimes classified as a sonnet and sometimes not. While the poem does not have a rhyme scheme and is not written in strict iambic pentameter, it does have many iambic lines, it does have 14 lines, it does have a volta near the end, and it is a love poem, which is a traditional subject for the sonnet. When contextually viewing the poem, then, it can be difficult to classify.

Hayden was no different. While he wrote many of his poems in traditional form, many of his poems were also written in free verse. Hayden lived in a time of great evolution in poetry when poets experimented with different forms and genres. He was one of these experimental poets.

For example, in this poem, he does a unique and powerful thing with his form: He manipulates it just enough to add to the weight of the poem’s tone and message. The poem’s sonnet qualities are not instantly recognizable. Only upon further analysis and consideration does a reader recognize how similar the poem is to a sonnet. This matches the speaker’s actions in the poem. Only upon thought and introspection does he recognize the care his father had for him.

James Mann said of Hayden’s poems that they are “formal in a nontraditional, original way, strict but not straight-jacketed” (Poetry Foundation. “Robert Hayden.”). This is an apt description of “Those Winter Sundays”.