Robert Hayden Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Michael S. Harper

Critical Essay by Michael S. Harper

Mr. Hayden's precision and economy is ubiquitous in ["American Journal"]; his use of slang, nicknames and the common parlance of the street is full of charm and never overdone….

The appeal of "American Journal" is enhanced by its organization, the lyrical economy with which sequences of poems develop the historical perspective; for Mr. Hayden the desire for beauty is a very human wish to resist the inevitable pain of life…. (p. 18)

Mr. Hayden's thematic attention to history reflects an attention to the vernacular and to the uses of the literary mask; the title poem is a devastating commentary on the contrast between the celebration of ancestral rituals and the damage to our spiritual lives wrought by a materialistic world…. [His] poems promise a blossoming evident in the continuous journal of an America he has both named and penetrated. (p. 20)

Michael S. Harper, "Three Poets," in The New...
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