1. Given what you know about Frederick Douglass, how does this poem truly honor him? or What is this poem saying about freedom for African-Americans?
2. Choose two words or phrases in the poem, discuss their connotations and then connect to the poem's portrayal of Frederick Douglass.
Question 1: Frederick Douglass has done a lot for the abolitionist movement and deserves to be rightly honored. Without him, it wouldn’t have been the same for the African Americans since he was so important to the abolitionist movement. In the poem “Frederick Douglass”, they are able to truly honor Frederick Douglass by showing what he has gone through in order to reach his goal. The poem begins with a representation of how important freedom is to the African Americans. For the African Americans, freedom and liberty is as “needful to man as air,” The author is implying that the importance of freedom and liberty for the African Americans is comparable to the importance of air to people. Later throughout the poem, they introduce Frederick Douglass and tell us the things that he had to go through as a slave. Some of these included things like being “beaten to his knees” and being “exiled”. When he was a slave he was often mistreated by the slave owners because they viewed them as property. He believed it was wrong. These things caused him to try to escape from his home. He thought that slavery was wrong and need to be stopped. Frederick Douglass wasn’t the only one who felt this way, most slaves felt the same way. Then it continues to talks about what Frederick Douglass’s goals were as he was trying to end slavery. He wanted to change the world, he wanted to “[vision] a world where none is lonely, none hunted,” His ideal world is a world where we can learn to live with one another and learn to treat everyone with equally. Although he was not able to get there, he made it one step closer by being able to free the slaves. The poem ends by them stating that it is important to remember people like Frederick Douglass. We can remember him in many ways like “with statues… and poems and wreaths of bronze” but it would be better to remember him by being thankful for the many happy lives he was able to make from his own life alone. Frederick Douglass was one of the many impactful people from the abolitionist movement. It is great that the poem was able to portray him correctly and most importantly honor him for the work he has done to give freedom to many people.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: Frederick Douglass was a very big person in African American life. He was a social reformer. He was a great writer, and a statesman. In the poem, "Frederick Douglass", by: Robert Hayden. They were truly able to honor him because they were showing all his battles and torture and everything he had to go through to achieve a sense of freedom. He keeps having a sense of a freedom idea in the back of his mind, "When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful terrible thing, needful to a man as air"(Hayden 22). He wants everyone to have equality. As I analyze the poem even more I understand how brutal this man is getting abused, "...this former slave, this negro beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world... shall be remembered."(Hayden 22). Everyone all around the world should know who he is because he wants to be the one to help get rid of this slavery. He 'visions a world where none is lonely'.
ReplyDeleteThe poem is also talking about freedom for African American Slaves. Freedom is a glorious thing that everyone should be able to experience as well as live it. The slaves there always here poems, and legends about freedom, "...not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone...beautiful, terrible thing."(Hayden 22) Frederick escaped slavery at the age of 20 and he became an anti-slavery activist. When it says, "but with lives grown out of his life, the lives fleshing his dream of the beautiful"(Hayden 22). Since he escaped slavery at such a young age and got to live in freedom. When the author says 'lives grown out of his life' he is talking about if the slaves did the same thing that Frederick has done to be free. Basically being a free slave. Lives are extremely hard and terrible for African American people at this time. They get treated horribly just because of the color of their skin nothing else. I'm happy that now, we can all live in peace and in equality.
Question 2: Throughout the poem, the author express a deeper idea through simple words or phrases. He begins the poem with description of what freedom and liberty meant to the slaves. He exclaimed that freedom and liberty was “this beautiful and terrible thing,” to them. It is formatted in such a way that it becomes a paradox since something being both beautiful and terrible is somewhat contradicting. We associate something that is beautiful as a good thing, while on the other hand something that is terrible is seen as the opposite of beautiful. When you look at it from the perspective of a slave you can see how both can be true. Freedom and liberty is such a beautiful thing because it allows people to be free and express themselves however they want. This was something the slaves yearned for. The reason it can be viewed as a terrible thing is because the slaves had to do so much work in order to receive this when they should have had it in the first place. All the hard work and suffering they went through. Frederick feels that although freedom and liberty is a good thing to have, the journey that they took to get it was a bad thing. The author also writes about how freedom should be “truly instinct”. He adds to his claim by comparing it to “diastole” and “systole” If you did not know, diastole and systole refers to the way the heart pumps blood through the body. The heart gives off a connotation of love and happiness which the slaves unfortunately did not always feel this way. He compares freedom and liberty to diastole and systole because like how diastole and systole are both instinctual. You don’t have to tell yourself to do those things. Your body does it on its own. They want freedom and liberty to be the same. Everyone should have freedoms and liberty. They should have to fight to have them or even be equal. To Frederick, these things should have been give to everyone at birth and truly believes that everyone should be free and equal.
ReplyDelete2. Choose two words or phrases in the poem, discuss their connotations and then connect to the poem's portrayal of Frederick Douglass.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Frederick Douglass" Robert Hayden uses many connotations that portray Frederick Douglass. He says he wants a world that is equal for everyone. In real life Frederick Douglass wanted everyone to be equal and this shows that the poet knows what he is writing about. He says, "Visioning a world where none is lonely, none hunted..." This is saying that everyone no matter what race or gender should be equal no not have to worry about life. Robert Hayden says that men should not be rewarded with trophies or statues. Men should be rewarded with the life they left after them. There are many connotations that connect to Frederick Douglass.