Annotation One of Frederick Douglass by Robert Hayden by Jordan Gulino Lyrics
A Historicist Reading of Robert Hayden's "Frederick Douglass"
The publication history of Hayden's "Douglass" reflects the method in which the poet and his text have been repurposed from the 1940's through the 1960's; as a result, it is difficult for Hayden's reader to distance the poet's personal experience, Hayden's own trials and struggles, from those of his subject: Frederick Douglass. The publication history of "The Autobiography of the Life of Frederick Douglass" bears similarities to the publication of Hayden's memorial poem. Each text grew with its writer over the course of his life, taking on new textual forms and references as Douglass and Hayden grew in popularity and influence. In this sense, Hayden's re-working and republication of his poem about Douglass is a memesis of Douglass' Autobiography. Though distanced by time, each writer used his vocation, writing, as an opportunity to force his reader to envision a world not defined by the political ideologies of their eras, but instead come face to face with a near-future where race, class, and gender no longer define and limit the human spirit. Douglass and Hayden's reader finds a kindred bond between the two half-black, half-white Americans; each sought through the discourses of rhetoric and poetry to raise the spirits and perceptions of his audience. As the reader parses out the meanings of both Douglass and Hayden's texts, lingual similarities become clearer and more defined. As we will discover, each man aspired to a time and place more accepting, more humanistic, than their current eras.
The publication history of Hayden's "Douglass" reflects the method in which the poet and his text have been repurposed from the 1940's through the 1960's; as a result, it is difficult for Hayden's reader to distance the poet's personal experience, Hayden's own trials and struggles, from those of his subject: Frederick Douglass. The publication history of "The Autobiography of the Life of Frederick Douglass" bears similarities to the publication of Hayden's memorial poem. Each text grew with its writer over the course of his life, taking on new textual forms and references as Douglass and Hayden grew in popularity and influence. In this sense, Hayden's re-working and republication of his poem about Douglass is a memesis of Douglass' Autobiography. Though distanced by time, each writer used his vocation, writing, as an opportunity to force his reader to envision a world not defined by the political ideologies of their eras, but instead come face to face with a near-future where race, class, and gender no longer define and limit the human spirit. Douglass and Hayden's reader finds a kindred bond between the two half-black, half-white Americans; each sought through the discourses of rhetoric and poetry to raise the spirits and perceptions of his audience. As the reader parses out the meanings of both Douglass and Hayden's texts, lingual similarities become clearer and more defined. As we will discover, each man aspired to a time and place more accepting, more humanistic, than their current eras.