To me, Sundays are often a day of leisure and rest after a series of exhausting school days. IT would be more or less the same for most people since it is a public holiday. However, the ¡§Sunday¡ presented in this poem is quite a different picture, in which we see a father working from Monday to Sunday with no rest at all. This is the function of the word ¡§Sunday¡ in the title, that is to give readers an expectation and break it soon afterwards. Appreciation of every poem starts from the title and this is where I shall begin.
             ¡§Those Winter Sundays¡, a title simple in terms of the verbal meaning , yet rich in terms of the implications it represent. If we divide it word by word, we would discover that each word carries a different idea delivered to the readers. The word ¡§those¡ is used to direct readers to a specification of the special or personal feelings the poet has towards ¡§winter Sundays¡. Otherwise, the poet would simply have named the title ¡§Winter Sundays¡ instead. As readers, curiosity would be aroused at the point of reading the title until they understand the significance it has for the poet. The word ¡§Winter¡ helps to create a cold and lonely atmosphere which is the basic context of the poem and later works hand in hand with the imagery of the working father presented later, to bring out the various qualities of the father. The word ¡§Sundays¡ is deliberately used to fool with readers¡ general schema that ¡§Sundays¡ are days of rest, and as they read on they will discover that the father also works on Sundays. Such reversal of the social norm will create a stronger impression of how hard-working the father is.
             A rich and complex picture is conveyed by the poem due to the use of contrasting imagery. As readers read on, they will be confronted with a striking image of the father dressing himself for work in the ¡§blueblack cold¡.(line 2) The t...