Literary Analysis Of Frederick Douglass By Robert Hayden

â€Å"When it is finally ours this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful† (Line 1) is one of the many lines in Robert Haydens poem â€Å"Frederick Douglass†. One of many poems in which Hayden takes events or figures from African American history as his subject. This poem was written as a tribute to Frederick Douglas himself. One of the very well-known and praised African Americans in the nineteenth century. This is no ordinary poem for Hayden. It is written in an improper sonnet. By improper I mean, sonnets are usually fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, which typically has ten syllables per line. Hayden has done a great job in using many different literary techniques to emphasize the work Frederick Douglass has done.†¦show more content†¦Anaphora is defined as the repetition of a word or a group of words in the beginning of a sentence to add an emphasis and/or bring clauses together. It is important to understand that the utility of a naphora is most commonly used in poetry to add an artistic effect. With that being said, the opening anaphoric, â€Å"When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing† creates a momentum which will sustain this sentence for eleven lines. The next clause in this sentence switches the anaphora from â€Å"this† to â€Å"when it†. The overall function of anaphora is not only to add emphasis but to create a form of rhythm to make it memorable and pleasing to the audience. Similes were used in this poem is different ways. Hayden was trying to get the readers to understand what he was trying to say by making some simple comparisons. Similes is a figurative language that is defined as drawing comparisons. An example of a simile in the poem would be â€Å"Needful to man as air, useable as earth† (Lines 2-3) Hayden is comparing freedom to air and earth. Hayden is trying to get the reader to understand how important freedom is to a human being. Freedom and liberty is something that we all should obtain. The next literary technique used in this poem is imagery. Imagery is a mental image. Hayden states â€Å"This man Douglass, this Negro, Beaten to his knees exiled, visioning a world, where none is lonely, none haunted, alien† (Line 7-9). Hayden is trying