Introduction
Literary figures have often examined the secondary position of persons or writers having African heredity throughout their history in the United States. These kinds of social and racial discrimination have often forced a group of creative writers to form a literary movement that reveals protest.
Frances Harper’s “An Appeal to My Country Women” and Robert Hayden’s “Frederic Douglass” are accepted as African American Protest poems that celebrate the ideologies of American liberty and universal brotherhood. Even though Frances Harper and Robert Hayden enjoy American liberty and accept the blessings of the nation, they would seek the real meaning and existence of various terms such as freedom, liberty, love, and equality in American society. Robert Hayden’s poem “Frederic Douglass” demonstrates the struggles and toils faced by the man Frederic Douglass having a black identity. Harper explains the torture and anguish of a countrywoman with the background of Armenian identity. Through the description of the sufferings of their characters both Harper and Hayden exposes their unending effort to keep the ethical identity of Blacks.
Black identity and American liberty in Hayden’s “Frederic Douglass
Robert Hayden’s “Frederic Douglass” explores the enlightening character of Frederic Douglass and poet tries to praise and predict the future eulogize of the man Frederic Douglass. At the very beginning of the poem one can notice the use of “this man” instead of using the full name. The word ‘man’ is used here as a common word having a generated meaning such as man and Negro.
This man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
Beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
Where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
This man, superb in love and logic,
This man shall be remembered… (Hayden 7, 8)
These lines emphasize the actual value of the liberty, which was passionately longed for by the African-Americans. In general, this is the essence of the free and happy life, the basis of which is absence of violence, torturing and loneliness. People wish to love and to be loved, and they wish t apply “healthy” logic to the rules of their life, instead of slavery which has nothing in common with this logic.
Poet remembers Douglass as a former slave, who run away from captivity and made an unending struggle against racial discrimination. The reader can easily find the figure of a man with profound knowledge and love. The phrase “beaten to his knees” underlines the severe torments faced by the Black people in America and Hayden declares the great survival of Black slaves. The poem reveals a serious thought that the United State’s relation with freedom has often been crammed with both color and disagreement. Generally, literary figures have often pictured the one side figure of freedom and liberty in their works but Hayden makes a comprehensive and structured approach in his poem. Actually, freedom is regarded in two aspects: real and fiction. Fiction is mentioned in the following lines:
When it is finally won; when it is more
Then the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians; (Hayden)
This is just a matter of political propaganda, while slaves need to feel and breathe the actual freedom. Thus freedom is felt in every sight, in every beat of the heart, and those who know the real cost of freedom will be able to differentiate the “mumbo jumbo” from the freedom “Where none is lonely, none hunted, alien”
While Hayden demonstrates the word freedom in both ways, a freedom for former slaves became a great and precious one with the background of toils and afflictions from the white community. Terrible side of freedom can be seen through the attitude of white people towards slaves and Negros. In the poem Douglass makes known the finally he reached the land of freedom which liberty could lie. Poet provokes the reader to think about the value or practicability of love and logic. Hayden beautifully blends the concept of love and ideology that many people feared about success. Poet often forced his readers to think about the fact that the concept of freedom and liberty are easily attainable for persons who always grouped them, but when a person who always had a seat looking on them, it becomes unattainable or not able to touch. Reader can easily comprehend Hayden’s poetic artistry through his style of creating images. With the background of various images poet enhances the nobility of liberty. It is crystal clear that poet indirectly reveals the attitude of slaves and Negros towards liberty and freedom. Poet sings liberty becomes an inevitable one in human life and the following usage emphasizes the significance of liberty.
Hayden concludes his poem through a clear declaration of freedom and the poet inspire the people especially African Americans who faced the evilness of slavery and racial discrimination in their life. Poet says that we must seek to lay on our muscle where it is feeble, and tighten our bone where the cracks become visible. In the end, Hayden announces the fact that “it is finally won” and poet argues that both liberty and freedom are essential for Black people and it is their right and duty to preserve liberty.
Harper’s “An Appeal to My Country Women”
Frances Harper discloses the lifelong distress and alienation faced by Armenian women. Harper is considered as one of the widely accepted African –American writers who preached moral uplift and existence of Black community and women folk. Like Robert Hayden Harper also demonstrates the troublesome life of African Americans through the character of an Armenian woman. In the fifth stanza poet stated:
But hark! From Southland are floating
Sobs of anguish, murmurs of pain,
And women heart-stricken are weeping
Over their tortured and their slain (Harper)
This symbolizes the heavy stress of those women who do not feel the freedom to be women, or the freedom to be equal with men. Actually, these are not the claims of feministic character, as feminists claim for the rights, while this is the cry for dignity.
Harper powerfully portrays the need for political voice among the African Americans and she also forces the reader to analyze the plight of slaves and Negros. Slavery became an everlasting curse in the history of human beings and historians have often documented the fact that most of the African- Americans that including number of Armenians and Mexicans treated badly in Factories. Poet invites the attention of the reader to those violations through her poem. Even though they lived in America and celebrate the blessings of that nation, they are suffering from a variety of discrimination. The trials and tribulations of African American women revealed through the following lines:
When we plead for the wrecked and fallen,
The exile from far-distant shores,
Remember that men are still wasting
Life’s crimson around our own doors (Harper).
Like Hayden, Harper comments about the social and cultural status of African Americans who lived in the United States. As a citizen of the United States, Africans often get nation’s favor and Harper still believes the land of the United States has the ability to ensure the rights of African Americans. Hence, the actual importance of the freedom for African American women is the absence of sorrows and pain that women feel not only for themselves, but for their men, who are also enslaved. It is clear for a reader that directly or indirectly Harper explores her optimistic view about the future of African Americans. She says:
But surely the mils of God’s justice
Will grind out the grist of their fate (Harper).
A notable and thought-provoking fact is that Harper never blames the white authorities who played a vital role in the process of policymaking in the United State. On the other hand, Harper emphasizes the ideas of the Universe justice, as people should not tolerate discrimination eternally. Here the ideas are more clear and comprehensive for the reader that poet celebrates the liberty and universal brotherhood that lays in America and at the same time she laments the plight of the Black community.
A heartbreaking cry for liberty and freedom is mentioned in each line of the poem Frances Harper’s “An Appeal…” and the pain and afflictions faced by the slaves expose their unquenched thirst for freedom. Most of the literary figures that have the status of Protest poets including Harper often discuss the identity crisis in their poems and one can see the attitude of White dominating society towards their Black encounters. Poet notes:
Men may tread down the poor and lowly
May crush them in anger and hate (Harper)
White people have often considered Negros as outsiders of the society and they have suffered from the status of a second-class citizen. The poem ends with a vital suggestion from the part of the poet and it may be a reaction or natural resistance of the African Americans towards their plight. Poet concludes:
This the judgement of Godmen reap
The tares which in madness they sow,
Sorrow follows the footsteps of crime,
And Sin is the consort of Woe (Harper).
Actually, these may be regarded as the lines of hope. However, this hope is the last which women have, and what they may oppose to their pain.
Comparison of Harper and Hayden
A comparative study Between Frances Harper’s “An Appeal to My Country Women” and Robert Hayden’s “Frederic Douglass permits the reader to think about the existence of Protest poems and how they celebrate liberty as well as they stand firm for Black community. Both Harper and Hayden demonstrate the sufferings and pain of African Americans through their poems. Common fact is that both of them are passive in criticizing the White authority and it reveals the fact that they like to follow the practical ideologies of the United States. Unlike Hayden Harper writes more deeply about the pain and anguish faced by Black community. Major difference is that Hayden portrays his ideas through a historical figure Frederic Douglass but, Harper uses Armenian women. Both of them admit the reality that they have acquired the present status of a writer through their own American nationality and still they wish to live in America. The concept of liberty and freedom are the enlightened images in both poems and it reveals poet’s Black identity. Finally Hayden reveals his optimism about the future of Blacks in America, but Harper ends her poem with a suggestion or announcement. The suffering of the slaves is clearly shown, though, they are regarded from various angles: the angle of a slave, and the angle of an enslaved woman. Both perspectives are the results of tears and pain.
Conclusion
To conclude, comparative study between Frances Harper’s “An Appeal to My Country Women” and Robert Hayden’s “Frederic Douglass put forwards some significant thoughts. Poets like Harper and Hayden explore their Black identity through their poems and they enjoy the blessings of America as well demand their Black existence firmly. Hayden underlies the nobility of liberty and freedom through the historical figure of Frederic Douglass, who is a former slave and faced the sufferings of racial discrimination in his past. Their agreement towards American culture is visible for a reader when he or she considers their passiveness in criticizing White authority in the United States. Slaves and Negros have often enjoyed the blessings of liberty and freedom than White people because they faced racial discrimination at its worse. As poets from African American protest poems both Harper and Hayden utilize their craftsmanship and imagination to enrich Black existence and at the same time they often try to keep their American citizenship properly.