Robert Hayden 

overview

     Robert Hayden was a poet and educator (1913-1980). He was widely known for talking about his “black experience" during the early 20th century and being the first African American to serve as a consultant in the library of congress. He tends to use a more formal writing style, usually sticking to topics like race, identity, and history.

  Biography

     Robert Hayden, birth name being Asa Bundy Sheffey, was a poet and educator born August 4, 1913, in Detroit Michigan. His parents Ruth and Asa Sheffey separated before his birth, leaving him to be adopted by his next-door neighbors, Sue Ellen Westerfeld and William Hayden, in the town of Paradise Valley, located in Detroit, Michigan. He has many problems growing up both emotionally and physically, which we used to motivate his writing in educating other people. After high school he went straight to working, and after balancing and failing some odd jobs, decided to attend Detroit City College, which is now Wayne State University. After a couple of years, before he finished his degree, he left to go work for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project, which was during the Great Depression, aimed at creating employment opportunities for out of work writers. After leaving the Federal Writers Project In 1940, Robert Hayden published his first piece, calling the collection “heart shape in the dust”. In 1941, he decided to further his education at the University of Michigan, where he then began graduate work. While he was in college, he continued writing, but winning two Hopwood awards off of his first published work, “heart shape in the dust”, in 1942.

career

     Most of his education and knowledge was through W.H Auden, who taught him artistic discipline and writing technique. Robert Hayden focused on race, identity and race, stating in his poem “the diver”, “there is no beautiful lie that I have not embraced”.  He won his first award in 1942, before then going on to teach and continue writing his poems. He taught at Detroit City College from 1946 - 1966, before going to University of Michigan until his retirement in 1969. He won a noble prize at the First Festival of Negro arts in 1966, but the reputation was mixed. Some people followed him and supported him, while others in the community didn't think his work fit the typical black person experience. He was later denounced at Fisk University in 1966, for failing to identify as a black poet. he was also the first African American Poet to work in consultant in poetry in congress (1776-1778), earning a national book award nomination and a Michigan Arts foundation award during that time period.

  Literacy influences

      Robert Hayden grew up always reading, no matter the book or topic he loved to read. A lot of his motivation and influence came from just reading and falling in love with it, creating the passion he had. Growing up he looked up to poets like Elinor Wylie and Paul Laurence Dunbar.  His influence also came from not only studying with poets like W.H Auden and Langston Hughes who enriched his literacy style and expanded his focus, but his time with the United States Army during World War II. 

Selected list of works 

     Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940)

Figure of Time (1955)

A Ballad of Remembrance (1962)

Words in the Mourning Time (1970)

The Night-Blooming Cereus (1972)

American Journal (1978)

reputation

     Robert Hayden's reputation was mixed. His work was mostly overlooked due to race and discrimination being involved, but some people loved his courage and agreed with what he was writing about. Now, he is considered a very important figure, being the first African American to serve as consultant in Poetry to the library of congress, exploring black history, and influencing major changes in his community.

Further Reading

     Castelaz, Caitlin. “Robert Hayden in the Archives.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, 2025, p. 6, https://doi.org/10.31581/jbs-35.3.605(2025).

 Carson, Warren J. “Robert Hayden in Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Movement by Derik Smith (Review).” CLA Journal, vol. 63, no. 1, 2020, pp. 121–22, https://doi.org/10.1353/caj.2020.0017. 

Cited Sources

     “Robert Hayden | History | Research Starters | EBSCO Research.” EBSCO, 2022, www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/robert-hayden#research-starter-title. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.

     Jackson, Blyden. “ROBERT HAYDEN AT FISK: A PERSONAL NOTE.” Obsidian (1975-1982), vol. 8, no. 1, 1982, pp. 76–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44489629. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.

“Robert Hayden | EBSCO.” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.ebsco.com, 2022, www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/robert-hayden.

     DeJong, Tim. “‘NOTHING HUMAN IS FOREIGN’: POLYPHONY AND RECOGNITION IN THE POETRY OF ROBERT HAYDEN.” College Literature [West Chester], vol. 43, no. 3, 2016, pp. 481–508, https://doi.org/10.1353/lit.2016.0032.