The Blue Terrance

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman (1892)

Hayes includes a quote from “Song of Myself” as an epigraph to Wind in the Box (2006), emphasizing the common themes between his collection and Whitman’s poem. Written well over a century before Hayes’s poem, “Song of Myself” is considered an exuberant exploration of individuality and a liberal American identity. In the poem, Whitman famously proclaims, “I contain multitudes,” and he celebrates the contradictions of the self. In “The Blue Terrance,” Hayes also examines this complex, individual self, though in the additional context of race and gender.

“The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes (1925)

Written at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, an important art and literature movement that emphasized African American identity, “The Weary Blues” examines Black art born out of struggle. In the poem, the listener of blues music feels joy and relief, but the creator of the music is forced to relive his pain. While both “The Weary Blues” and “The Blue Terrance” highlight the importance of blues music in African American culture, the poems differ in tone and treatment.

“American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [“Probably twilight makes blackness dangerous”]” by Terrance Hayes (2017)

In “American Sonnet …,” published a decade after “The Blue Terrance,” the poet’s tone is sharper and more despairing. Written after Donald Trump became president in 2017, the poem criticizes the institutionalized racism that led to such an outcome. Unlike “The Blue Terrance,” which uses the individual self to approach racial identity, in “American Sonnet …,” racial identity becomes the entry point into the individual self.