My view of the poem.

When I read this poem, I got a whole different understanding from it then the class did when we discussed it. But for me, the central theme was: even when we are given so much, as God does for us, we are ungrateful for what we are given. For me, the father in this poem represented the God and I think that the him making the fire is God giving us warmth and comfort when it could just be cold and dreary. "No one ever thanked him." This line is where I got the feeling how the author is describing how ungrateful humanity is and this is pretty much where the central theme comes from. The very first word of the poem "Sundays" is also where I get the feeling that this poem is religious since sunday is the most important day of the week for Christians. However, during class discussion, it was said that the poem's theme was mainly about the speaker not having a good relationship with the father. For instance, "Speaking indifferently to him" shows the poor relationship. However, I believe that it represents the poor relationship with God that most people have.