Night, Death, Mississippi, a Poem Written by Robert Hayden in 1950S, by a Family of Lychers

Liu 1

Writing Class I

Charity, your analysis is a close reading, which is good. However, re-consider some of your interpretation and re-organize your ideas.

* avoid sweeping generalization; analyzing with general terms. *wrong use of active/passive voice * Rather organize your paragraphs in terms of your thesis, than in terms of techiniques—as you did in this draft.

Charity Liu

493206017

2004/9/30

Analysis of Robert Hayden’s “Night, Death, Mississippi”

From the point of view of a family of lychers, “Night, Death, Mississippi,” a poem written by Robert Hayden in 1950s, illustrates the terrifying way of life in Southern society in the United States. “Lynching is the illegal execution of an accused person by a mob. It was originally a system of punishment used by whites against African American slaves”(Spartacus). Provoked by “A quavering cry. Screech-owl”(1), the atmosphere of thrill with the setting at the night is created and foreshadows the sequent lines of the poem. The cry leads out the terror of the human’s heart of the lychers, or all lynch practitioners universally (?). The tone is wicked(?) and horrified(?) (active voice) when the grandfather enjoys his memories of practicing lynching and the father delightfully comes home to his wife and children telling them his great work of mutilating Black men. The poet’s concerns for racial amity and humanity are also conveyed through the plight of the victims(?Not described directly, right?). Furthermore, with rich physical and psychological responses, imagery, irony, and so on, the poet creates the stirring and striking atmospheres and themes of terror and dehumanization(?). (* This is too general a description of the poem, but not an introduction of an issue of your focused analysis. The (?) shows the parts where I don’t understand or find too general.) (*No thesis statement.)

In the poem,Thethe lynching practice is almost like a masculinist ritual handed down from one generation to the next generation. The evil is inherited and continued from the grandfather, the father and the children. (To use this word, you convey a direct moral condemnation which the poem only implies.) The grandfather, after hearing the cry, knows it’s “one of them”(2), one of the Black men who is tortured. He regards it as a normal, gleeful and proud work that he laughs. He not only enjoys it by “limping to the porch to listen”(7) but feels pitiful not able to join them with his son as he did in the past. Though he already has no strength and is old, weak, crippled, and “in his reek and gauntness”(3), his cruel and evil heart never changes. As for his son, the Boy or the Father, he acts just like what the grandfather did. The father boasts how they mutilate the Black men to his wife and his children. The dehumanized attitude is especially told when he is proud of saying he “beat(s) them till our arms was tired / and the big old chains / messy and red”(26-28) and says, “Christ, it was better / than hunting bear”(30-31). Besides, the family (but the following line is spoken by the grandfather, right?) also prepares a celebration for the father when he comes back. It says, “have us a bottle, / Boy and me— / he’s earned him a bottle”(21-23). Even the mother asks the children to welcome their father as a hero by saying “You kids fetch Paw / some water now so’s he / can wash that blood / off him”(35~38). The inherited evil then be justified, honored and learned by children. Their deeds also show the inhumanity and the dehumanization are deeply rooted in white lychers’ hearts.

Robert Hayden doesn’t have to use lot of descriptions of the victims but, with characters’ physical and psychological responses, the atmosphere of terror is created excellently. He writes the grandfather laughs even when he hears the sorrowful screaming and he wishes to do and see the terror in person. The lychers “beat,” “hawks and spits” at the Blacks(? Not so; the poem shows the speaker/grandfather to do this at home.). They don’t have any sense of sorrow, regret or sympathy for those victims but feel pleasant, exciting and honored. However, the victims, without names in the poem, are relatively silent and invisible with only the sound of crying for God’s sympathy, strength and help. Lychers’ terrified and dehumanized responses and victims’ helpless crying all portray the extreme horror and plight.

(Transition) The use of repetition in “Night, Death, Mississippi” conveys the idea of repeating and continuity. One of them is “Time was”(11) that suggests the grandfather cherishes the memory of practicing lynching on the Black men, and also suggests this horrible historical fact is everlasting repeated. The word, “cry” is also repeated suggesting the tragedy happens often and victims are many. Besides, the frequent use of dash at the end of the line gives readers a perfect sound of effect for continuity that corresponds to the idea of inheritance and continuous evil.

(Transition) The major colors presented in the poem are black and red signifying the black men and the blood. The dark and black color is emphasized several times. For example, the title, “Night,” “turn(ing) out the kitchen lamp”(6), “sweetgum dark”(13), and “darkness”(39). These suggest, in one way, the Black men who are dark-complexioned, inferior, lowly or even dirty, or, in another way, the darkness of terror, cruelty and death cover and spread everywhere. The southern area is haunted by the miserable tragedies of dehumanized lynching. The red color is crucial in the poem as well, such as “bloody Jesus”(15), “sweetgum”(also named redgum for its red heartwood and fallen leaves)(13), “groinfire”(20), “old chain / messy and red”(27-28), “Jesus burning”(29), “rawhead”(34), and “bloodybones”(34). It refers to bleeding when victims are lynched, the plight and the pain. The red color is interwoven with the dark color creating an atmosphere of uneasiness, dreadfulness and fear.

Another color in the poem is white referring to the White people, the lychers or the members of the Ku Klux Klan. As it says, “white robes like moonlight / In the sweetgum dark” when the grandfather is thinking of his past being a lycher, it suggests they, the White, are just as beautiful and glorious as moonlight in the world of the dark. They are superior and try to purify and “light” the world, and that is to make to extinguish the Black race extinct. (What’s ironic for me here is that moonlight is supposed to be soft and gentle, but the white robes are not.)_

(Transition)The images are set forth to have more details on the event of the poem. In the image of “windowless night”(8), it hints the night is out of the frames. (good; I think ‘domestic frames’ or the frames of humanity.) The society is actually chaos without the organization or the limitation by the government. There are no effective laws to stop the inhumane behaviors. The situation is out of control and out of order. Thus, the evildoing is seemingly ignored or tolerant by the majority of the people. (evidence and analylsis?)

The “Sweetgum”(13), or the “redgum,” is a kind of trees planted in Mississippi and the place elsewhere. The white lychers often hang the Black men on the trees, which is easily seen as a threat or a warning. Trees, the redgums, hence, are easily related to the pictures of the hanged victims. The image of “sweetgum dark” here, then, may suggest the night when lynching or the private execution is prevalent. (why? Or that ‘night’ is identified as ‘sweetgum’ – or a time for lynching, as is the usage in ‘paycheck day’ or ‘break time’? )

Furthermore, the shocking image of “groinfire” refers to the emasculation or the castration on the Black men as a means of torture. As they “cut it off”(16), the blood-covered groin is just like as red as fire. (The two expressions are from two different contexts. “Cut it off,” in context, means stopping the black’s squealing, and of course there can be other connotations. However, it’s a bit far fetched to think of it as emasculation.) The flames image expresses the extreme pain for the victims as well as the fever and insanity of the lychers.

(^Gap: use irony as a way of transition.)When both the lychers and the victims cry out for Jesus’ name, it is a tremendously ironic and vivid contrast. When the father says, “Christ, it was better / than hunting bear / which don’t know why / you want him dead”(30-33), his attitude shows he thinks God is his side and gives such a pleasure or recreation for him. The “bear,” not as a human being as he, deserves to die. This shows the white men’s sense of racial and religious priory toward the Blacks. On the other hand, when the victim is crying out, “O Jesus burning on the lily cross”(29), and “squealing bloody Jesus”(15—for me this means some one who is squealing ‘bloody Jesus.’ Your interpretation is possible, but I would think that it’s unlikely that the lyncher calls the black Jesus. The other quote is a black’s voice.), the images imply the crucifixion, the death or sacrifice of the Man who is faultless. It suggests the Black men are faultless as well but were tortured and sentenced to death.

Moreover, the crucifixion images tell what the victims yearn for is God’s salvation because the crucifixion brings the salvation and the redemption for all. The contrast of the evil and the good is presented with strong irony. How come the evildoers also believe and thank God, the savior of the weak and the poor?

The victims’ names are absent in the poem. This reflects the victims’ situation, just like their erased and absent names, is actually neglected and suppressed in the society.

The title of the poem, “Night, Death, Mississippi,” points out the horrifying historical fact with quite short words. It’s like the victim’ short scream or cry resounding in the darkness. The death quickly seizes the victim in Mississippi’s night. Besides, three words correspond to the three reclamations by unknown victims as a parallel effect for Trinity. “Trinity means that at the root of everything there is movement, an eternal process of life, outward movement, and love” and it means “the image of the perfect community […] not a hierarchy of power”(Maryknoll). This implies what the Black men call out here is the humane racial treatment and loving community.

In “Night, Death, Mississippi,” Hayden uses a family of lychers to present the morbid and distorted way of life when the Black men’s basic human right and dignity are totally deprived by the White mobslynching from the perspective of two generations of white lynchers. His poetic images and irony bring out the profound bitterness(?) and darkness of the era to call for a racial amity and humanity. By the merriment of slaughter in lycher’s home, it’s ironic to see who is the very non-human “bear,” (but ‘bear’ here is not considered negative—just one more example of a victim) and who is really resembled with Jesus, the Son of God. (This is more specific than your introd. However, to be specific)

Work Cited

Maryknoll Org. “Item Description: Holy Trinity, Perfect Community.” 2004. Orbis Books. 30 Sept. 2004 <

Spartacus Educational. “Lynching.” Spartacus Educational. 2002. Spartacus School. 30 Sept. 2004 <