Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913 - February 25, 1980), born as Asa Bundy Sheffey, was a United States African-American poet, essayist, and educator. August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States and Canada whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ... An essayist is an author who writes compositions which can be about any particular subject. ...

Life

Hayden grew up in an adopted family in Detroit, Michigan. He was raised as a Baptist, but converted to the Bahá'í Faith during the early 1940s after marrying a Bahá'í, Erma Inez Morris. He is one of the best-known Bahá'í poets and his religion influenced much of his work. Nickname: Motor City, Motown, Hockey Town Motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (Latin for, We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes) Official website: www. ... A Baptist is a member of a Baptist church. ... Seat of the Universal House of Justice, governing body of the Baháís in Haifa Israel The Baháí Faith is a global religion founded by Baháulláh, a 19th century Persian exile. ...

Career

Hayden was elected to the American Academy of Poets in 1975. From 1976 - 1978, Hayden was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the position which in 1985 became the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Hayden's most famous and most anthologized poem is Those Winter Sundays, which deals with the memory of fatherly love and loneliness. Other famed poems include The Whipping, which is about a small boy being severely punished for some undetermined offense; Middle Passage, inspired by the events surrounding the Amistad affair; Runagate, Runagate; and Frederick Douglass. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress is appointed by the United States Librarian of Congress and earns a stipend of $35,000 a year. ... An anthology, literally a garland or collection of flowers, is a collection of literary works, originally of poems, but in recent years its usage has broadened to be applied to collections of short stories and comic strips. ... La Amistad (Spanish: friendship) was a Spanish merchant ship on which a rebellion by the slaves it was carrying broke out in 1839 when the schooner was travelling along the coast of Cuba. ... Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. ...

Bibliography

• Selected Poems by Robert Hayden. NY: October House 1966.
• Words in the Mourning Time: Poems by Robert Hayden. London: October House, 1970
• Angle of Ascent: New and Selected Poems by Robert Hayden. NY: Liveright, 1975
• American Journal: Poems by Robert Hayden. NY: Liveright Pub. Corp., 1982
• Collected Prose: Robert Hayden. Ed. Frederick Glaysher. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 1984.

External links

• Overview of Robert Hayden's life and poetry from XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia's Introduction to Poetry
• Those Winter Sundays hermeneusis by ex-Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
• Academy of American Poets listing
• Robert Hayden: His Day Is Now! A Defense Of Hayden's Verse
• Review of The Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
• About Hayden's Life And Career
• Online Selection of Poems
• Audio of Hayden's poem Soledad
• "On 'Middle Passage"": excerpts of essays analyzing Haydon's deeply ironic "anti-epic"