The Poetry of Robert Hayden (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)
At a glance:
- Author: Asa Bundy Sheffey
- First Published: 1940
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: African Americans, Segregation or integration, Freedom, History, Parents and children, Politics, Revolutionaries, South or Southerners, Slavery or slaves, Music or musicians, Protests or demonstrations, Art or artists, Poetry or poets, Spiritual life or spirituality, Child abuse, Violence, Pain, Gospel music, Heroes or heroism
The Work
Much of Robert Hayden’s poetry reflects one man’s wrestling with the sway of poetic influence. His early verse echoes the themes and styles of many of his immediate forebears: Harlem Renaissance poets such as Langston Hughes and Countée Cullen, and American modernists such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Hart Crane. The subjects of Hayden’s later poetry reflect his belief that African American poets need not focus exclusively on sociological study or on protest. Early mentors such as Hughes and Cullen guided Hayden through his years of apprenticeship and...
[The entire page is 562 words long]
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