Neruda and Hayden's poems are alike in that in both the speakers wish to speak for the oppressed. In Neruda's words, the poet comes:

to speak for and through your dead mouths.
Attach your bodies to me like magnets.
Come to my veins and my mouth.
Speak through my words and my blood.

In both cases, the poet realizes the enslaved and mistreated are often unable to speak with their own voices, but that their stories deserve to be told.

Hayden's poem, however, is more complex. This is because, unlike Neruda's work, it ironically weaves in the point of view of the slave ship owners as well as those who suffered terribly as captive cargo during the Middle Passage from Africa to enslavement in America. Neruda, in contrast, focuses solely on telling the story of the suffering masses without including the viewpoint of the masters.

Which poem is more compelling comes down to the taste of the reader. Both are powerful and moving works. Because of its greater length and specificity, Hayden leaves us with more vivid images of the suffering of blacks during the Middle Passage, including their experiences of hunger, despair, thirst that leads them to suck their own blood, and for the women, repeated rape. These are images that are difficult to eradicate from the mind and which justify the mutinous rebellion the slaves enact later in the poem.

Neruda's poem is more understated and universal. It does offer some moving images: "the jeweler with crushed fingers," "the axes with blood-encrusted sparkle," and the imagery of laborers punished harshly by being thrown on rocks or crucified for not meeting the harsh demands of the masters.

You will have decide for yourself if the passion and intensity of the Hayden poem, focused on a single form of abuse, is more compelling that Neruda's quieter but still intensely felt words.