Poets are artists and therefore very creative people. But their artistic faculty does not - in most cases - conjure out of nothing. Poets are influenced by many different things. Almost all lyricists name some other members of their art who directly or indirectly made an impact on their very own work - who they used as a kind of an idol or who even aroused their interest in poetry. Robert Hayden is no exception. He admits to be influenced by poets such as Keats , Byron, Carl Sandburg, Countee Cullen and more.
Naturally poets are also influenced by their surroundings, namely nature, landscape, history and of course by people, especially by friends and family members. For Hayden, and probably almost all other poets, poems serve as a means of coming to terms with particular situations. Robert Hayden’s upraising was not exactly typical; his parents separated soon after his birth and he was brought up by poor foster-parents. He states that the “greatest discouragement” were the circumstances he lived in: His family neither had money nor education; at the age of forty he had to find out that his foster-parents had never formally adopted him and the worst thing were the “conflicts, the quarrelling, the tensions that kept us most of the time on the edge of some shrill domestic calamity.” (Both McCluskey 138)
This term paper aims at illustrating how Robert Hayden – in his poems - coped with his family background and his position between the people who loved him and who struggled about being loved most in turn. To fully understand the emotions of Robert Hayden and his attitude towards his foster-parents and his mother I will – in the first chapter - provide a depiction of his youth and his relationship between him and his natural parents and foster parents.
I chose to concentrate on three poems; two from the collection A Ballad of Remembrance because they emerged at a point in Hayden’s life where he felt he needed to recall to his past and besides these poems illustrate a portrayal of his foster parents. In the second chapter I will present a description of his foster mother and father on the basis of information taken from these two poems.
The third chapter will, on the basis of the third poem ‘Names’, illustrate Robert Hayden’s identical crisis which emerged from his discovery that he had not been adopted legally.
Finally I will evaluate the information gained from chapters one to three and present a summary of how Robert Hayden coped with his greatest discouragement.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Robert Hayden and his Family
2. Poems and Portrayals
2.1. Portrayal of Mr. William Hayden
2.1.1. Those winter Sundays
2.2. Portrayal of Mrs. Sue Hayden
2.2.1. The Whipping
3. The question of identity
Conclusion
Objectives & Topics
This paper aims to analyze how Robert Hayden processed his difficult family background and the resulting identity crisis through his poetry. It explores the complex, often painful relationships with his foster parents and natural mother, examining how he eventually achieved a form of catharsis by transmuting his childhood experiences into lyrical art.
- Analysis of Robert Hayden’s traumatic upbringing and family dynamics
- Examination of the portrayal of foster parents in "Those Winter Sundays" and "The Whipping"
- Discussion of the author’s identity crisis following the discovery of his legal status
- Exploration of poetry as a means of catharsis and emotional reconciliation
- Evaluation of the influence of natural versus foster parental figures on his artistic development
Excerpt from the Book
1. ROBERT HAYDEN AND HIS FAMILY
Robert Hayden was born as Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Michigan on August 4, 1913. His biological parents were Asa and Ruth Sheffey – a black former coal miner from West Virginia and a woman of mixed origins from Pennsylvania, who ran away from home - while still teenager - to join a circus. They divorced yet before Robert’s birth and when Asa disappeared, Ruth decided to leave 18 months-old Robert with a black neighbor couple - William and Sue Ellen Hayden - and went to Buffalo, New York to find work there (Hatcher, 6). So Asa Bundy Sheffey became Robert Earl Hayden.
Sue’s daughter Roxie lived with them and worked as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant (Hayden 1993, 18). The four lived on Beacon Street in a part of Detroit which later ironically became known as Paradise Valley (Greenburg 363). That district was filled with a mixture of cultures. Hayden knew kids of Chinese, “Italian, Jewish, even Southern white” origin (Hayden 1993, 26). Robert Hayden describes the main street of Paradise Valley as a place of “shootings, stabbings, blaring jazz, and a liveliness, a gaiety at once desperate and releasing, at once wicked – Satan’s playground – and good-hearted.”(Hayden 1993, 19) Later, that part of Detroit became a “largely Black ghetto” (Hatcher 5).
Robert Hayden suffered from extreme myopia. This short-sightedness restricted his social development in so far, that he could not take part in every kind of leisure activities, like sports. He was, however, a very intelligent boy and learned to read before entering school and took violin lessons. He had to quit, when his teacher discovered that Robert did not play after the music but simply by hearing it because he couldn’t decipher the music anymore. Due to this handicap – his visual defect - he early began to withdraw into the world of literature (Hayden 1993, 22).
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: Outlines the influence of personal history on Robert Hayden's work and establishes the scope of the paper regarding his foster and natural parents.
1. Robert Hayden and his Family: Provides a biographical overview of Hayden’s upbringing, his difficult living conditions, and the complex emotional tensions between his biological and foster family.
2. Poems and Portrayals: Analyzes specific poems that depict his foster parents and explores how he reconciled his conflicting memories with them.
2.1. Portrayal of Mr. William Hayden: Examines the tense relationship with his foster father and the late appreciation Hayden gained for his father’s stoic way of showing love.
2.1.1. Those winter Sundays: A detailed interpretation of the poem, focusing on the themes of regret, unrecognized love, and the "act of expiation" involved in its writing.
2.2. Portrayal of Mrs. Sue Hayden: Explores the emotional challenges posed by his foster mother and the dynamics of her grief and depression.
2.2.1. The Whipping: Discusses the poem's depiction of physical punishment and how it serves as a reflection on his foster mother’s internal turmoil.
3. The question of identity: Investigates the identity crisis triggered by the late discovery that Hayden had never been legally adopted.
Conclusion: Synthesizes the findings, highlighting how Hayden used poetry to find catharsis and navigate his lifelong feelings of alienation.
Keywords
Robert Hayden, Family Dynamics, Poetry, Foster Parents, Identity Crisis, Catharsis, Those Winter Sundays, The Whipping, Names, Childhood Trauma, Lyricism, Detroit, Literature, Biography, Emotional Reconciliation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this academic paper?
The paper examines how Robert Hayden utilized his poetry to cope with his troubled childhood, his complex relationships with his foster and biological parents, and his eventual identity crisis.
What are the primary thematic fields covered in this work?
The key themes include family conflict, the process of emotional maturation, the role of literature as a coping mechanism, and the search for identity through retrospective reflection.
What is the central research question?
The work seeks to illustrate how Robert Hayden confronted his "greatest discouragement"—the circumstances of his upbringing—and processed his family background through his lyrical work.
Which scientific methodology is applied in this analysis?
The author employs a literary analysis approach, connecting biographical data from historical sources with a thematic and structural interpretation of Hayden’s specific poems.
What topics are discussed in the main body of the paper?
The main body focuses on Hayden's biography, his relationships with his foster father William and foster mother Sue, and the impact of finding out he was not legally adopted.
Which keywords best characterize this research?
Important keywords include Robert Hayden, childhood trauma, identity crisis, catharsis, and familial conflict.
How did Hayden's myopia impact his development?
His extreme short-sightedness limited his participation in social activities like sports, which led him to withdraw into the world of literature and poetry from an early age.
What does the poem "Names" reveal about Hayden’s psychological state?
The poem reveals the existential crisis he faced upon discovering his lack of legal identity, which transformed his sense of self and led him to question his past and his true origin.
Why was the relationship with his foster mother characterized as ambivalent?
While she loved him, her own severe psychological pain, stemming from the loss of her first husband, caused her to take out her suffering on Hayden, creating a love-hate dynamic that haunted him for years.
- Quote paper
- Wiebke Formann (Author), 2006, Family portrayals in "A Ballad Of Remembrance" - How Robert Hayden dealt with his "Greatest Discouragement", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/78338
