The African-American Poetic Response to Racial Prejudice :A Study of Brown and Hayden

Abstract

The African- American poetics is affected by a complex and deeply rooted philosophy of the double consciousness created by W.E.B.Du Bois(1868-1963) which is the feeling of being Americans and African Americans. This feeling has a great impact on the African -American poets. It influences the way in which African- American poets react to racial preconception. However, the present paper is aimed at showing the nature of the African -American poetic response to race. The paper deals with selected poems by Sterling Allen Brown( 1901-1989) and Robert Earl Hayden(1913-1974).The study concludes that the African- American poetic response to racial abuse is based on how each poet regards race.