Those Winter Sundays was written in free verse and therefore does not follow the rules of rhyme. The language of this poem is so refined that I suspect it would be too bland if a poem like this had some sort of rhyming rule.
For example, in line 5 there is a small rhyme: "Banked fires blaze.
banked fires blaze. no one ever thanked him.
Also in this poem I find it rhymes in intervals
For example, call rhymes with house in lines 6 and 8, and cold rhymes with know in line 11.
Figurative Language
This poem uses many metaphors to set off the cold of winter on a Sunday, without which the poem would lose its soul
e.g blueblack cold, cracked hands that ached from labor, chronic angers of that house, speaking indifferently
hear splintering, breaking, love' s austere and lonely offices
Stanzas
This 14-line poem has three stanzas of four to five lines each, and the overall structure of the poem is relatively tight
Characters and
mood
‘I'
indifferently
Speaking indifferently to him
No one ever thanked him.
afraid
fearing the chronic angers of that house
‘father’
tired
cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather
love his son
polished my good shoes
made banked fires blaze
he’d cal when house warm
theme
regret
The author describes how his father prepared a lot for him on a cold morning, but the author never thanked his father
No one ever thanked him
Speaking indifferently to him,
love’s austere and lonely offices
Research on Fatherhood in North America in
1960-70s
