Robert Hayden was born on August 4, 1913 and died on February 25, 1980. He was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office.
Robert Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, son of Ruth and Asa Sheffey. The couple separated before his birth. He was taken in by a foster family next door, Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden, and grew up in a Detroit ghetto nicknamed "Paradise Valley". The Haydens' eternally belligerent marriage, coupled with Ruth Sheffey’s competition for her son's affections, made for a traumatic childhood. Witnessing fights and suffering beatings, Hayden lived in a house troubled with chronic anger. His childhood traumas resulted in debilitating bouts of depression that he later called "my dark nights of the soul".
Before answering the question, I would like to mention what we call free verse poetry. It is poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression.
We can conclude that the present poem is written in free verse because:
There is no rhyme scheme.
The lines are unequal in length.
<em>The other options present limitations or patterns which are the opposite characteristics of free verse.</em>
<span>D) Rukmani tries to stay in the village by offering to read villagers' letters for a small fee
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<span>C) to discuss the infallibility of memory to recall facts correctly from the past
The narrator in this is talking about an important memory from his childhood, but he is nervous when he thinks about how the memory might be 'marred' or changed from the innocence of youth. He remembers the place but hopes that it has remained as pure as he felt it was from his childhood. </span>
Answer:
I believe the theme of "Pastoral" is<u> </u><u>"adaptation." </u>
Explanation:
"Pastoral" is a poem written by <em>Jennifer Chang</em>, an American scholar and poet. The poem is part of her collection called<u> "The History of Anonymity."</u> It is a type of<em> lyrical poem</em> whereby the writer expresses her emotions through <u>nature</u>, such as<em> plants, fruits, grass, weeds, etc. </em>
The theme of Pastoral is<u> "adaptation."</u> It talks about <u><em>how nature adapts to what is happening in the surrounding environment.</em></u> For example, it mentioned <em>"Something in the field has mastered distance by living too close to fences."</em> This shows how such part of nature mastered its situation by living close to the fences.
The poem also shows how some cannot master such situation as it's mentioned in the end<em>, "Something in the field cannot." </em>This also shows "survival of the fittest." One example of this is<em> grass fighting with the weeds. </em>This happens when both fight for the nutrients in the soil. This is part of nature which they adapt to wherein only the strong one survives.
