Exploring the Text

1. The poem consists of one long periodic sentence and a fragment. What is the main clause of the sentence? What is the effect of the multiple dependent clauses and modifiers leading to the independent clause?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - The poem consists of one long periodic sentence and a fragment. What is the main clause of the sentence? What is the effect of the multiple dependent clauses and modifiers leading to the independent clause?
2. What is the effect of Robert Hayden referring to liberty as “this beautiful and terrible thing” (ll. 1–2)?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - What is the effect of Robert Hayden referring to liberty as “this beautiful and terrible thing” (ll. 1–2)?
3. What is “the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians” (l. 6)?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - What is “the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians” (l. 6)?
4. What other abstractions (such as “this beautiful and terrible thing”) do you find in the poem? How does Hayden manage to make Frederick Douglass a vital presence when he uses such abstractions to recall him?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - What other abstractions (such as “this beautiful and terrible thing”) do you find in the poem? How does Hayden manage to make Frederick Douglass a vital presence when he uses such abstractions to recall him?
5. Lines 11–14, while technically a sentence fragment, are, in fact, an explanation. What is Hayden explaining, and how these lines are linked to the previous sentence?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Lines 11–14, while technically a sentence fragment, are, in fact, an explanation. What is Hayden explaining, and how these lines are linked to the previous sentence?
6. In the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie McKay point out that Hayden’s poetry fell out of favor with many of the young black nationalists of the 1960s who felt that it did not speak directly enough to the more radical politics of civil rights. Yet, they continue, the “beat” of a poem such as “Frederick Douglass” testifies to his “vision of human possibility that bet its hand on the redemptive occasions of the future.” In what ways might the “beat” of the poem contribute to its being interpreted as a call to action? Consider anaphora, enjambment, and repetition in your response.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie McKay point out that Hayden’s poetry fell out of favor with many of the young black nationalists of the 1960s who felt that it did not speak directly enough to the more radical politics of civil rights. Yet, they continue, the “beat” of a poem such as “Frederick Douglass” testifies to his “vision of human possibility that bet its hand on the redemptive occasions of the future.” In what ways might the “beat” of the poem contribute to its being interpreted as a call to action? Consider anaphora, enjambment, and repetition in your response.