A Bahai Reading of Robert Hayden's "Frederick Dougla**"
The Bahai faith figured heavily into Robert Hayden's worldview at the time of this poem's composition. As a convert to this eastern religion, Hayden incorporated humanist themes into his poetry, those that gave new purpose and meaning to his life. Within the poem the reader finds numerical clues and an overarching symmetry that point towards a Bahai influence. Beyond these cryptic inclusions, the content of Hayden's poem is unabashedly optimistic in tone; rather than merely immortalize Dougla** as a figure easily defined by turmoil and struggle, Hayden instead projects an image of Dougla** as a revolutionary-on-the-side-for-good, a prophet of understanding and peace. This may be problematic from a historicist point of view, yet Hayden, who was surely aware of Dougla**' writings and beliefs, nonetheless uses his poem as an occasion to impose a figurative identity onto Dougla** that aligns with Hayden's own Bahai beliefs. As a result, the Dougla** of Hayden's poem is not truly a representation of Dougla** the man, but rather Dougla** the idea, that idea that would inspire later generations of artists and equality-rights activists in Hayden's own age.