"Those Winter Sundays"

After studying the collection of eigth poems, I thought that this poem was one of the easiest ones to understand. I really liked this poem because of the nostalgic point of view of the speaker looking back on his or her past experiences. I could relate to the regretful and ashamed tone of the poem, because I have been in situations that are similar to the speaker's situation numerous times in my life. I also liked the fact that there could be more than one interpretation of this poem. When I initially read this poem by myself, I took it very literally. I saw no symbolism or deeper meaning. But when my small group discussed the poem in class, one member of my group thought that the father in the poem represented God and the son or daughter represented all of God's children on earth. I thought it was very interesting that there could be two completely different opinions about the meaning of the work. I'm not positive which one is correct or if either of them are correct, but I loved the universal message behind both interpretations. I liked how the poem gave the advice or the message to be thankful, grateful, and appreciative of the many things that others do for us.