The structure and form of the poem, a lyric poem in terza rima, help Hayes to illustrate the unique experience of his own and other African-Americans’ lives. Blues expresses African-Americans’ sorrow and pain from discrimination. The “gym” is yet another box which holds the bird in. “Who is this Christopher Gilbert and why am I only just hearing about him?” asks poet Terrance Hayes in his new essay, “We Are Our Situations: The Poetry of Christopher Gilbert.”. All Rights Reserved. The food is able to strengthen the carp, just as knowledge is able to strengthen people to uplift themselves from adversity. Despite the harsh surroundings of the community, Hayes is optimistic that the community can end the cycle of crime through knowledge. Thus, Hayes summarizes in two the sentences the massage of the entire poem. Hayes melted his sadness, discriminatory experiences and culture into the poetry using the “blue” as a metaphor for blues. Copyright 2021  . “Caged Bird by Maya Angelou.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48989/caged-bird. Bone, again, references the idea of structure. The 'blues' are a historically African-American form of musical expression that pairs sorrow with expressive music, and is considered one of the greatest contributions of African-Americans to musical culture. Hayes, Terrance. The speaker then compares the boys to carp, later describing how the carp could help anyone cross the pond so long as they have “tiny rice balls or bread to drop into [their] mouths” (14). In his five books, he has perfected a sort of poem where wild jams carom inside arbitrary formal boundaries. His honors include a 2010 National Book Award, a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2016 NAACP Image Award for Poetry. The speaker is living proof to the boys that a young African-American male can seek a life outside the confinements of a jail cell with the willingness to gain knowledge. Hayes, who is forty-six, won the 2010 National Book Award and is a professor at N.Y.U. Other works by Terrance Hayes... For Crying Out Loud. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. the thing that is trapping the auditor. Terrance Hayes’s most recent publications include American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin (Penguin 2018) and To Float In The Space Between: Drawings and Essays in Conversation with Etheridge Knight (Wave, 2018). The young boys the speaker visits in Terrance Hayes’ work, “Carp Poem,” are representative of how seeds planted in stone have the ability to shatter its enclosures and seek the light above the dark world. African-Americans experienced a lot of discrimination due to their skin color. Terrance Hayes: Poetry essays are academic essays for citation. My name could be Lamont. The free verse is attempting to break away from the sonnet, the sonnet attempting to reign itself in. For instance some of his better known work is How to Be Drawn, Lighthead and the book focused on in this essay Wind in a Box. Terrance Hayes tested many avenues before pursuing a career in English. Opening Terrance Hayes’ new book of poetry is like being drawn into whirling tornadoes of emotions, words and poetic styles, revealing a poet not afraid to take chances or take on any subject, no matter how fraught with cultural land mines. In the case of the prisoners, this means escaping from their life of criminal activity to become uplifted by the speaker who is offering them knowledge in his visitation. Also, by putting “The” in front of “Blue Terrance,” which refers to Hayes himself, the writer creates distance between the author (himself)... Hayes lets “I” talk about how the writer’s life was and how he feels. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. It is not enough to want you destroyed” (Hayes 14). The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian. Hayes, Terrance. He received a B.A. The Associated Press. Throughout “The Blue Terrance,” Hayes uses title, structure, form, and a metaphor of the color blue to talk about not only sorrow, but also freedom. The prisoners, being young and black, are enthusiastic to hear from the speaker who, like them, is young and black as well. Blue Terrance" by Terrance Hayes and "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes both use the blues as a metaphor for human existence. Hayes talks about his life briefly and expresses his thoughts and feelings through the poem. Learn more, Subject: African-Americans - Social Issues, Download this Essay in word format (.docx), Blue Terrance" by Terrance Hayes and "The, Hayes Life and Feelings in The Blue Terrance Essay.