Frederick Douglass

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W. H. Auden (1939)

A conventional tribute poem by Hayden’s mentor at the University of Michigan. Auden wrote the poem in memory of an Irish poet whose dilemma between his identity as a poet and as Irish influenced Hayden’s artistic development and dilemma between being an American poet and/or being a Black American poet. The poem reflects on a poet’s role in a culture at war, what Auden terms “the importance and noise of tomorrow” (Line 24), and how poetry impacts that struggle even though poets themselves may not man the barricades or take to the streets, a message not lost on Hayden.

“Runagate, Runagate” by Robert Hayden (1962)

This is a poem in celebration of another iconic freedom figure from 19th-century Black American history, and like Hayden’s sonnet to Douglass, is less about the person and more about that person’s impact. Here Hayden captures the essence of the countless people Tubman’s Underground Railroad network freed from enslavement through the use of fragmented voices that collectively celebrate the powerful pull of freedom.

“Negro” by Langston Hughes (1958)

This is an example of Black activist poetry. Written some 10 years after Hayden’s sonnet by one of the giants of the Harlem Renaissance and an influence on Hayden’s early development, “Negro” embraces Black identity with defiance and pride.