coms 304 interpretation of poem
Answer questions below (in detail) based on the following poem:
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one every thanked him
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
- What are the Operative words? Define them.
- What Sensory Imagery is created by those words? Summarize and/or describe in detail.
- What is the Tone? How does the author put together the sounds of the words? Be specific.
- Where is the Literary Imagery? How does it help create the emotional quality of the poem?
- What do you believe is the Writer’s Intention for the piece? What are they trying to teach or evoke in their audience? Support choice based on the above questions.
- Definitions:
- Operative word. the most important word in a phrase, which explains the truth of a situation
- Sensory imagery is any description that involves one or more of the five senses — touch, sight, taste, smell and sound. Poetry that is rich in sensory detail helps the reader perfectly envision the scene the poet is describing.
- The Literary Imagery is where the sensory images are placed in the poem and how that impacts the quality, tone and meaning of the poem.
- The tone of a poem is the attitude you feel in it — the writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience. The tone in a poem of praise is approval. In a satire, you feel irony. In an antiwar poem, you may feel protest or moral indignation.
- The writer’s intention is the meaning or interpretation of the passage that the author had in mind when he or she was creating it. It also includes the meaning the writer is trying to convey.