I think the tone in this poem is one of regret and remorse. As the son talks about all that his father did for him, though he never thanked him, he expresses some sadness through the words: "What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices." In the beginning of the poem, one can see the labor that the father underwent through descriptions of his "cracked hands" and starting a fire in "the blueblack cold." The first verse is made up of one elongated sentence and then one extremely short sentence. This shorter sentences says: "No one ever thanked him." Since it is shorter, it has the ability to stop the previous sentence in its tracks, so to speak, and deliver more emotion and emphasis. When in the second verse it speaks of "cold splintering, breaking" it helps one to envision the extreme cold which they faced, both literally, and possibly figuratively through some problem in the house. This provides a tone of coldness and pain as well. Overall, the cold and then change to warm is emphasized, providing the tone of wistfulness. It is as if the narrator wishes to go back and change the way things were. It is this wish that drives the poem.
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