Robert Hayden was the nation’s first Black Poet Laureate, a honor that most believe was first bestowed on Rita Dove in 1993. But Hayden’s achievement occurred 17 years earlier in 1976, and he served in the post for two years.
Hayden was born August 4, 1912 as Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Mich. When his parents split before he was born, Hayden entered the foster care system under the guidance of Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden. Growing up in Detroit’s poor Paradise Valley district, Hayden endured a tough childhood replete with arguments between his caretakers.
Battling depression and too small and nearsighted to enjoy outdoor sports, Hayden developed a strong love for reading. After graduating high school, he entered Detroit City College (now Wayne State University) and left school in 1936 to work for the Federal Workers’ Project that was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Hayden studied African-American history and culture during his time with the program.
Hayden’s first book of poetry, Heart-Shape In The Dust, was published in 1940. That year he also married Erma Inez, converting to her Baha’i faith as well. The influences of his studies and his new religion inspired his poetry.
Hayden read Harlem Renaissance poets like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, but under the tutelage of noted poet W.H. Auden at the University of Michigan is when Hayden’s writing truly took shape. After graduating in 1944, Hayden taught at Fisk University in Nashville for 20 years. He returned to Michigan in 1969, remaining there until his death in 1980.
In the 1960s, Hayden’s work began to receive global recognition. He won the grand prize for poetry at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Sengal in 1966 for his book Ballad of Remembrance. Although his work was clearly influenced by the Black culture and experience, Hayden did not consider himself as a Black poet as due to the anti-racist teaching of his faith. That distinction may have alienated Hayden from some Blacks despite the themes in his work.
In 1975, Hayden was elected to join the American Academy of Poets. The following year, the Library of Congress named him as a “Consultant in Poetry” later renamed as “Poet Laureate.”
Hayden died at age 66 in Ann Arbor, Mich.
See below for an excerpt of Hayden’s most famous poem, Middle Passage:
Jesús, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy:
Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,
sharks following the moans the fever and the dying;
horror the corposant and compass rose.
Middle Passage:
voyage through death
to life upon these shores.
“10 April 1800—
Blacks rebellious. Crew uneasy. Our linguist says
their moaning is a prayer for death,
ours and their own. Some try to starve themselves.
Lost three this morning leaped with crazy laughter
to the waiting sharks, sang as they went under.”
To read the entire poem, visit www.PoetryFoundation.org.
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