Can you help me understand a couple lines in this poem?

Question

Those Winter Sundays

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 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?

What did he mean by "of love's austere and lonely offices?" and also "fearing the chronic angers of that house"

Answer 1

I get the sense of a house that is unhappy, dysfunctional. A father beaten down by a harsh existence to the shadow of what could be. Made harsh by environment and thus treating those about him with equal harshness yet inwardly angry for knowing it could and should be different.

Love exists in the care shown to polish another's shoes despite the indifference shown in return. To continue to show this love in an outward labour is indeed a thankless and lonely post (or office) to hold.

i am not familiar with this poem, who is it by?

Answer 2

I think poems mean different things to different people. In fact people battle endlessly over one interpretation or another and an agreement is never reached.

My thought on the 'austere and lonely offices', is this was a young person perhaps referring to his father and the child is looking back remembering that he did not realize, 'a man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do'. Somebody's got to warm the place up for the kid and it looks like it's you, it's expected. Who else would do it?

I think the anger in the house, phrase comes from why the father is the only one there to do these usual, daily, things for the child. What happened, what was the anger that left the 2 alone?

Answer 3

The commentary at this site might help you understand those lines better:

http://www.turksheadreview.com/library/r...