Robert Hayden's poem "These Winter Sundays" and Wallace Stevens' poem "The Plain Sense of Things" describe different aspects of what defines house and home. Although a house can be a house, a house doesn't always mean a house. This difference, among other factors, correlates with the way both poets play on the emotional nuances between a house full of people and a lonely house in the woods. While Hayden seeks to describe how a person's house is a home because of the loving action of a father, Stevens describes the transformation of a house from a home for people to a home for the natural world. Although the poets use two different tones for their respective poems, both define what a house could represent. “Those Winter Sundays” depicts the speaker's childhood memory of Sunday church mornings. The speaker explains that his father, although he had to work outside the rest of the week to provide for his family, would go out early in the morning to collect firewood to heat the house. Only when the heat of the fire warmed the entire house and he shined his son's church shoes did the speaker's father wake the family from their sleep. No one showed appreciation for this action which demonstrated the father's love for his family. The speaker shows deep reproach because of his indifference towards his father, which he concludes is due to his youth and naivety. In line 5 ("No one ever thanked him") and line 10 ("Him speaking to him with indifference") explicitly states that at this time he did not particularly care whether his father took or no time to warm the house, shine his good shoes, then wake him up to go to church. At the time, the speaker may have been afraid of seeing his or her parents fighting, clashing, or yelling in the middle of a piece of paper......and down. Both “These Winter Sundays” and “The Common Sense of Things” aim to describe what the speaker is like in a house, whether it is where his family is or where the mother resides. life. Either poem takes on intricate detail using the seasons to help reflect the underlying emotions of the poem's voice as well as standout lines that help the reader know what the speaker means, why he says it and how he chooses to say it. Hayden and Stevens do a good job of conveying a certain feeling without having to be daringly explicit. Works Cited Hayden, Robert. “These winter Sundays”. Poems, poets, poetry: an introduction and an anthology. Ed. Karen S. Henry. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 6. Print. Stevens, Wallace. “The common sense of things”. Poems, poets, poetry: an introduction and an anthology. Ed. Karen S. Henry. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 8. Print.