Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden possessed amazing skill with Language and the structure of the poem. Though perhaps best known for his poems that explore and express the African-American experience, from the days of slavery, to the Civil War, to that of his own time, poems like "Middle Passage," or "The Bal­lad of Nat Turner," he also wrote shorter, arguably more lyric poems that capture personal or religious moments. "Those Winter Sundays," a poem about a son remembering his father, is an excellent ex­ample of one of these shorter poems as it displays Haydens incredible control of language and intri­cate understanding of human experience. It is clear that there was distance between them and little communication or even warmth. It is discovered though, in recollection, that love actually was pre­sent.