Jordan Gulino - Annotation One of "Frederick Dougla**" by Robert Hayden lyrics

A Historicist Reading of Robert Hayden's "Frederick Dougla**" The publication history of Hayden's "Dougla**" reflects the method in which the poet and his text have been repurposed from the 1940's through the 1960's; as a result, it is difficult for Hayden's reader to distance the poet's personal experience, Hayden's own trials and struggles, from those of his subject: Frederick Dougla**. The publication history of "The Autobiography of the Life of Frederick Dougla**" bears similarities to the publication of Hayden's memorial poem. Each text grew with its writer over the course of his life, taking on new textual forms and references as Dougla** and Hayden grew in popularity and influence. In this sense, Hayden's re-working and republication of his poem about Dougla** is a memesis of Dougla**' Autobiography. Though distanced by time, each writer used his vocation, writing, as an opportunity to force his reader to envision a world not defined by the political ideologies of their eras, but instead come face to face with a near-future where race, cla**, and gender no longer define and limit the human spirit. Dougla** and Hayden's reader finds a kindred bond between the two half-black, half-white Americans; each sought through the discourses of rhetoric and poetry to raise the spirits and perceptions of his audience. As the reader parses out the meanings of both Dougla** and Hayden's texts, lingual similarities become clearer and more defined. As we will discover, each man aspired to a time and place more accepting, more humanistic, than their current eras.