English 101
Write a reflection essay based on the following prompt:
What is similar about how Neruda and Hayden testify to the past? What is different? How do you explain these similarities and differences? Which poem do you find more compelling, and why?
250+ words (not including direct quotations)
ANSWER
Reflection Essay
Hayden and Neruda’s poems are alike in that they both wish to speak on behalf of the voiceless and oppressed of the past. Both poems have correlated past events to present hopes. Both poems have focused on the struggle that individuals have experienced. For instance, Neruda has created a narrator who deeply meditates on those that came before him while on the mountain. Both writers have focused on death but in different but unique ways.
Neruda tends to sympathize with those that died before him while Roberto relies on strong words that tend to describe the horror, pain, and death experienced by the slaves. Both poems have treated death differently since Neruda uses death as a means for the narrator to meditated on their current life. However, they have similarities of death as a way of ending suffering and saving oneself from much distress and turmoil. The poems also different in length since Hayden’s poem is more complex. Additionally, Hayden has paid attention to a specific form of justice while Neruda’s commitment to justice is ubiquitous.
The choice of which poem is compelling is a matter of taste and complexity of the poem. Hayden’s poem is more compelling as compared to Neruda’s poem. It is impressive and fascinating how Hayden describes the past in a fascinating technique. The poem has an elegiac and ironic voice with a narrative, alternately lyric, and dramatic understanding of the slave trade. This has transformed the poem from just a narration to something that can be compared in real-time and the past.
Hayden’s poem is rich in image and the memories of the narrator that have enabled Hayden has relied on the narrator to present the historical and personal perspective of the slave trade. The narrator has enabled the reader to experience slavery through their eyes. Hayden allows the point of view from the narrator which makes the work more understandable. Hayden realized that the mistreated and enslaved are voiceless but their stories need to be told.
