Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

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ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980) “RUNAGATE RUNAGATE” (1962) √A highly moving—rhythmic—poetic evocation of the Underground Railroad: sights, sounds, fears, threats, the heroine Harriet Tubman, language from “WANTED” posters. Different VOICES. √ THE CONCISE OXFORD COMPANION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: “One of Robert Hayden’s most successful historical poems, ‘Runagate Runagate’ (first published in 1962), employs a montage of voices to portray the tumultuous world of escaped slaves, and ultimately the fundamental human impulse toward freedom. ‘Runagate,’ a term for a runaway slave, refers specifically to Harriet Tubman and by extension to a series of symbols suggesting freedom and emancipation.” [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100433238] √ Cental Idea: Quest for Freedom, of slaves in the American South √ Poetic Meter: Utilizes a variety of meters: dactyl, iamb, amphibrach, cretic, anapest, spondee—yet is strongly grounded in the TROCHAIC. The poem’s opening line is in Trochaic Heptameter, with other major line-groupings of 6 trochees, 4 trochees, 3 trochees, pairs of trochees “bookending” another single meter; the “hoot-owl calling” quatrain near the poem’s conclusion has all 4 lines in Trochaic Tetrameter. The use of TROCHEE is, further, associated with moments of high drama. Three MOLOSSUS in highly emotionally charged moments. √ Historical, Evocative, Powerful, Personal √ Historical sources of some of the poetic language: spirituals, hymns, abolitionist songs, WANTED posters, voices of slaves, the voice of Harriet Tubman. √ Reiteration and Alliteration: “Catch them if you can….”; “she says”; “movering, movering”; “Mean (mean mean) to be free”; “brethren brethren”; “air”; “leaves”; “No more”; “Some go (some in)”; “for me”; “darkness”; “beckoning beckoning”; “and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing”; “and the night cold and the night long”; “keep on going”; “when you try to catch them”; “Many thousands”; “If you see”; “woman of earth, whipscarred, a summoning, a shining”; “Tell me . tell me”. √ Rhyme: “Tell me, Ezekiel, oh tell me do you see / mailed Jehovah coming to deliver me?”; “And before I’ll be a slave / I’ll be buried in my grave”; √ REFRAIN: “Runagate, runagate (, runagate”); “Rise and go”; “Come ride-a my train”; “Mean [mean mean] to be free”; √ Simile: No clear similes. √ Metaphor: “shapes of terror” / “and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning” / “that somewhere morning” / “O mythic North” / “Rise and go” / “turn into scorpions when you try to catch them” “bonanza gold” / “woman of earth” / “a summoning, a shining” / “way we journeyed from Can’t to Can” / “fear starts a-murbling,” / “dead folks can’t jaybird-talk,” / “the ghosted air” / “the talking leaves” / “through caves of the wish” / “on a sabre track” / “first stop Mercy” / √ Oxymoron: “falls rises” / “keep on going and never turn back” / “Some go weeping and some rejoicing” / “from Can’t to Can” / “Dead or Alive” / √ NO WASTED WORDS mem com: 3 March 2018 Work Chart by John Schechter, 3/6/18 .

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Your Feet's Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics
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