Key and Interpretation Guidelines: Those Winter Sundays
1. Who is the speaker of the poem?
a. A father looking back on his child’s younger years
b. An adult looking back to a place and time in his or her childhood
c. The ghost of the father looking back on his chil’s younger years
This is a factual question; the answer is in the text (“my father”); details throughout
the poem support this.
2. What is the weather like on these Sunday mornings?
a. stormy b. warm and rainy c. freezing cold d. cloudy and chilly
This is a factual question supported by the words “blueblack cold” and “cold
splintering”.
3. What does the child in the poem fear?
a. winter darkness b. ongoing angers c. blazing fires d. splintering
coldness
This is a factual question, but the reader needs to know the meaning of the
vocabulary word “chronic”.
4. What is this poem about?
a. hibernation b. romantic love c. familial love d. changing seasons
This question asks the reader to make an inference based on various clues in the
poem and understanding that the father expressed his love through his actions and
strong sense of responsibility.
5. What did the young speaker think of his or her father?
a. He was the best dad ever! #1!
b. The speaker had mixed feelings.
c. The speaker was ashamed of him.
This question asks the reader to make an inference based on various clues in the
poem, particularly lines 13-14, and the poem’s tone.
6. What does the speaker come to understand when he or she is older?
a. The speaker’s father never loved him or her after all.
b. That people may live and die and the seasons will always change.
c. It’s important to dress warmly in wintertime.
d. Though stern, the father expressed love through actions.
