Those Winter Sundays Essay Example for Free

Those wintertime Sundays EssayUpon first reading the poem Those wintertime Sundays by Robert Hayden, I was an objective reader who assumed Hayden was looking back with nostalgia at his lost childhood. Without researching the poem, as well as Hayden himself, I had no instruction of knowing his background as an adopted child to unhappy parents in a dysfunctional mansion theatrehold. After reading several sources, Ive formed a somewhat new outlook on the poem and what it means not only to we the readers, but also to Hayden the poet. One of the aforementioned sources used was Ann M. Gallaghers Haydens Those Winter Sundays in which Gallagher basically provides an objective explication of the poem. She picks apart the poems main characteristics, and manages to understand something that I as an explicator had not that Hayden obviously came from an unhappy childhood. Gallagher expands on that topic without ever mentioning any research she had done on Haydens biography, but solely on evidence from the text itself.Another of the texts used was Pontheolla Williams allow Robert Hayden A Critical Analysis of His Poetry. In this book, Williams spends most of the first few chapters delving into Haydens biography and where he grew up. Hayden was raised in Detroit with his adoptive parents, William and Sue Hayden however, he still frequently visited his biological mother, Ruth Sheffy, in New York, and his biological father in Indiana (3-4). In this book, Williams connects how the difficulties of growing up with two sets of parents contributed to Those Winter Sundays.My final source was Phillip M. Richards article, Robert Hayden (1913-1980) An Appreciation from the journal, The Massachusetts Review. This source focuses more on Haydens intellectual journey such as where he went to college, which scholars influenced him, and how this was portrayed in his poetry. Richards reveals that Hayden was privileged to attend college with the cream-of-the-crop of the Southern black college world, and that this greatly influenced his poetry (602).Each source brought new information to my attention, and I found all of that information substantial to further understand the poem itself. For example, Williams book revealed a whole background analysis on Hayden that without knowing, one ability neglect to connect Those Winter Sundays with Haydens actual life. Haydens adoptive parents join was not a particular happy one, and so Haydens description in the poem of the chronic angers of that house which he grew up in becomes more than just the squeaks and groans of an old house, as I first contemplated in my explication (9). After reading Williams book excerpt, I saw a new aspect of the poem, understanding the tension between Hayden and his adoptive father who was dissatisfied with his uncertain status as an adoptive parent and the fact that he and Mrs. Hayden did not get along very well (4-5). Had I not known this, my understanding of the poem would substantiate been limited. to a fault, in Phillip Richards article, new information approximately Haydens intellectual past was made bare and gave me a new perspective on how that played into Haydens work. When Richards states that Hayden has been so influential a poet because he developed such a suggestive model of the history poem, a poem that searches the personal or public past for significant truth that the poet might present to his audience, this pattern is brought to attention in Those Winter Sundays (611). Hayden is reflecting on the history of his childhood, finding the truth behind his fathers affection and ultimately, their relationship. This pattern was evident not only in Haydens work, but also in that of his intellectual colleagues which helped to shape his style. Had I not read this source, I would not have made the connection between Those Winter Sundays and Haydens intellectual journey.Finally, Ann M. Gallaghers article was a perfect example of what an objective explication sh ould look like. Until reading this article, I didnt really know the extent of what was expected in an explication. Gallagher draws information solely from the text itself that my own was definitely lacking. For example, Gallagher brings attention to the seemingly unhappy marriage between the Haydens when she states that one slowly becomes aware that it is not only the child who does not thank the hardworking father. No one ever didwhere, for example, is the woman of the house? Why is there no one to minister in love or duty? (246). In one statement, Gallagher has managed to open an entirely other look of Haydens motivation. Gallaghers explication changed my understanding of not only the poem, but of what a thorough explication entails.Additional sources are not only helpful when writing a paper, they are essential. Not because ones own ideas are not good enough, but because to enhance and expand upon those original ideas, research must be done. I would never have known Haydens fami ly background had I not researched it, and I would have been completely ignorant of that side of Those Winter Sundays. Likewise with his intellectual background, as well as the evidence from the text itself had I not come upon others opinions and revelations, I would not have been able to make my own. slice it is, of course, inexcusable to copy anothers work, it is conducive to use that work to further enhance your own ideas.