There are many inspiring people that dominate the English literature. Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Walt Whitman are some well-known poets that students are forced to read about in their English classes. What makes them well known and popular poets are the way that they incorporate their actual lives into the poems. This can make the poem more memorable and interesting for the readers. Robert Hayden was known for this. Robert Hayden was a renowned African American poet, essayist, and educator who impacted American literature. Born Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Michigan on August 4th 1913, his parents, Ruth and Asa Sheffrey separated when Robert was just a baby, which resulted in him living in foster care. His foster…show more content… Many of those poets attacked Hayden for not categorizing himself as a “black poet” and him insisting his work to be judged as other poetry written before him in the English literature. The younger poets were wanting to create a “black aesthetic” when writing and would not serve to the “white” standards of literature to be a part of the black revolution and create a political movement. Robert Hayden disagreed with this, as a part of his religion of Baha’i Faith, did not back down or against his views. His response to the entire racial black lash has him saying, “There is no such thing as black literature. There’s good literature and there’s bad. And that’s all!” (Sanders). Jason Mann, a well-respected and known journalist describes Robert Hayden’s rebellion and work as, “Nothing impresses one about Hayden so much as his qualities as a man, the nobility with which he confronted his life as it came to him: the terrible pain of racial discrimination… thoughtless and unfair criticism by members of his own race… Having experienced extremes of fortune, he endured with dignity and with the highest principles.” (Gable). Robert Hayden at no time did back down from what he was writing, and would never lose the objective of what he was really writing poetry for. It was not for political or to make a social stand, but a way for a man who grew up reading literature to…show more content… Two of them was “Those Winter Sundays” (1966) and “The Whipping” (1962,1966). “Those Winter Sundays” is a poem of a son, possibly looking back into the past of when he was young. The poem talks about how the father would get up early and make the house warm so the son would wake up in a warm and cozy house, and also the father would polish his son’s shoes. It would not be until many years later with the son realizing the sacrifices that his father did for his son, with the son not really realizing what his father was doing. The theme and meaning of the poem makes it very timeless that even people reading it in today’s time can still relate and understand it. The second poem is titled “The Whipping” and is more baleful and inauspicious than the last one. While the last poem was about a father’s love, this features a mother abusing the son. At the end it shows that the mother herself is also being abused, probably being abused from the father. (Hayden). This poem is most likely a reflect of Robert Hayden’s own childhood. His foster parents, Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden never got along with William sometimes beating Sue Ellen, and sometimes both of the parents would abuse Robert. Much of the dismal topics that were present of Robert Hayden’s poems were him reflecting his unpleasant childhood growing
