Close-Reading Essay: An Analysis of Robert Hayden's Poem 'The Web'

This essay provides a detailed analysis of Robert Hayden's poem, 'The Web,' employing a close-reading approach to unpack the author's intentions. The essay explores the use of literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, and imagery to understand the poem's themes of love, parenthood, and the representation of American history. The analysis examines how Hayden uses rhetorical questions and imagery to evoke specific emotions and create a deeper understanding of the poem. The essay also discusses the use of enjambment and its impact on the reader's interpretation of the poem. The conclusion synthesizes the analysis, highlighting how the poet's use of literary elements successfully conveys the poem's central themes and thesis statement regarding the complexities of love and regret.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE POEM “THE WEB”
Analysis of the poem “The Web”
Name of the Student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1ANALYSIS OF THE POEM “THE WEB”
Introduction:
Robert Hayden was an American black poet who wrote about the African American
history and explored about the same. The poem “Those Winter Sundays” deals about
indifference and how it leads to regret and admiration in the later stage. The poem deals with the
theme of love and parenthood through the use of literary devices such as alliteration, assonance,
imagery and others. The thesis of the poem is that it is a representative about love, while brig out
the history of America through it.
Discussion:
The rhetorical device of alliteration or repetition is present in the poem. Alliteration is the
repetition of a single word or a phrase in the same line in order to put an emphasis upon the
subject. In the poem, the alliteration occurs in “What did I know, What did I know?” (Buck and
Smith). This also is an example of a rhetorical question where the author does not ask the
question in order to receive an answer but to emphasize on the point that he is making.
The author also uses imagery in his poem. According to Yan, an imagery is used by a
poet in order to make the readers perceive the things that involve the presence of the five senses.
In this context, in the first stanza, the “blue black cold” and the “cracked hands that ached from
labor in the weekday weather” make the readers feel the pain of the harsh temperature as well as
that of the hardworking father. Similarly in the second stanza, “fearing the chronic angers of that
house” evokes an imagery of anger and a concern within the readers (Gates Jr). Also imagery is
present in the third stanza when the poet writes, “polished (his) good shows”, which reflects the
relationship that was there between the poet and his father.

2ANALYSIS OF THE POEM “THE WEB”
Gale also discusses another rhetorical device that has been used by the poet is
enjambment. This can be defined as a clause or a phrase that does not end in one line but
continues to the next line, thus carrying its meaning forward. For example, in the third stanza,
“who had driven out the cold/and polished my good shoes as well”, the meaning passes on to the
next line. It lets the readers ponder upon the thought that whether the poet did envision
something more apart from the regret that he knew not about love when he was a child. The
poet’s indifference to his father is proved in these two lines.
Conclusion:
Thus from the above analysis of the rhetorical devices in the poem, “Those Winter
Sundays”, the poet very clearly talks about the indifference that he had towards his father which
finally led him to feel guilty and admire his father more. The rhetorical devices of imagery,
alliteration and enjambment has helped the readers to delve deeper into the message of the poem.
Thus the thesis statement, which had been the representation of love through the rhetorical
devices has been clearly represented by the literary elements that the poet has used.

3ANALYSIS OF THE POEM “THE WEB”
Works Cited
Buck, Christopher, and Derik Smith. "Hayden, Robert." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Literature. 2017.
Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Robert E. Hayden's" Those Winter Sundays". Gale,
Cengage Learning, 2016.
Gates Jr, Henry Louis, ed. Black literature and literary theory. Routledge, 2016.
Yan, Jiang. "An Exploration of Narrative Strategies and Stylistic Features in Robert Hayden's
“Those Winter Sundays”." Foreign Language and Literature Research 1 (2015): 7.