Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever 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?
1. Words such as banked, chronic, austere, offices, and blueblack.other words like those in the title and too in line 1. Why they are important? whats their effect and impact?
2. what is suggested in line 9 by the phrase "chronic angers of that house? why did the son speak "indifferently" to his father? what does word choice indicate about relationships in the family?
3. what does the last five words mean? they are effective or ineffective for the end of the poem?
4. what is the effect of the repetition in line 13? how is what the speaker now knows different from what he thought as a child?