terrance hayes american sonnets for my past and future assassin

As the author starts describing a bull, the reader immediately imagines a huge beast with immense power, yet the very next line subverts the audience’s expectations drastically: “Inside me is a huge black/Bull balled small enough to fit inside/The bead of a nipple ring” (Hayes 6). The identified theme becomes vivid when studying the effect that the use of shape and size creates in the sonnet. Hayes emphasizes the importance of flexibility, adaptability, and the general capability of changing as one of the crucial characteristics of African American people, which allows them to survive in a hostile setting. The sonnet addresses the effects of social stereotypes inflicted upon African American people due to the persistence of racism by exploring the theme of change.

For example, the symbol of the black bull and the image of a bird trapped in a cage could be seen as the emblem of the African American community being marginalized due to the persistence of racial prejudices in American society. Though the sonnet may seem distanced from the issue of race, the presence of symbols alluding to the history of interracial relationships in the American society point to the development of social conflict. Rooted in the painful history of the U.S., the phenomenon of racism affects members of the African American community on all levels. Encouraging his audience to use free association in their perception of the two key metaphors in the poem, Hayes renders an important issue in modern American society, which is the continuous problem of racism. The contrast between the two images and the way in which the boundaries of each metaphor are expanded to include new ideas reflects the complexity of social relationships in the modern society and the inward struggle of an individual perfectly. Thus, the symbol of a bull transforms into the expression of pure delight, becoming the epicenter of the author’s emotional experience.

However, on closer scrutiny, the metaphor begins to expand to a larger image, with a bull becoming minute and the bird’s wings “whipping in a storm” (Hayes 6). At first glance, the colorful contrast between a bird entrapped in a cage and a wild beast running free might seem as quite simple representations of freedom and the sense of being restrained. The juxtaposition of the bull and the bird as two key symbols used in the poem is what catches the reader’s eye immediately as an obvious centerpiece of the poem.

Terrance hayes american sonnets for my past and future assassin