Robert Hayden – Frederick Douglass

I realize that I have a trend toward poems involving racism, but I do find such poignancy in the past struggles of this now “non-racist” world. This poem takes an iconic figure, and breaks him down into the man he really was, a poet. It is not about the legends or poems, it is about those that he affected with those medians. The other thing about this poem that makes it poignant is the talk of freedom, something that many in today’s society take for granted. I find myself in this poem, not because I was a black slave who was freed, but because I am one who lives in this free world. I feel it is powerful and realistic referring to freedom as a “beautiful and terrible thing.” It is amazing how something like freedom can be referred to as a terrible thing, because those who have it take it for granted. Frederick Douglass is one that understood what freedom is, something much of today’s society has forgotten.