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BA English Literature
[3rd Year, 5th Semester]
American Literature – II
Unit 1: Poetry
1.5. “Runagate, Runagate” by Robert Hayden
About Poet:
Robert Hayden, original name Asa Bundy Sheffey, was born
August 4, 1913, Detroit, Michigan. He was an African American poet whose
subject matter is most often the black experience.
He was the first african-american writer who served as
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976–78, a role today
known as US Poet Laureate.
His first collection of poems, Heart-Shape in the Dust, was
published in 1940. Another collection was published in 1948 called The Lion and
the Archer. He was becoming more and more influenced by the Harlem Renaissance
poetry.
Robert Hayden died on 25th February 1980 in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. He was 66 years old. An anthology of his poetry – Collected Poems –
was published five years after his death.
About Poem:
Robert Hayden's fifth collection, A Ballad of Remembrance,
was published in 1962. The book concludes with a series of poems that follow
the history of slavery. The series ends with "Fly Away Home,"
"The Ballad of Nat Turner," "Those Winter Sundays,"
"Runagate Runagate," and "Frederick Douglass."
Hayden’s poem "Runagate Runagate" reveals the
desperate yet dedicated journey of the Underground Railroad that helped escaped
slaves get safely to the North. The Underground Railroad was not really a
railroad, but the slaves used the term to relate to their path to freedom.
Poem:
I.
Runs falls rises stumbles on
from darkness into darkness
and the darkness thicketed with
shapes of terror
and the hunters pursuing and
the hounds pursuing
and the night cold and the
night long and the river
to cross and the
jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning
and blackness ahead and when
shall I reach that somewhere
morning and keep on going and
never turn back and keep on going
Runagate
Runagate
Runagate
Many thousands rise and go
many thousands crossing over
O mythic North
O star-shaped yonder Bible city
Some go weeping and some
rejoicing
some in coffins and some in
carriages
some in silks and some in
shackles
Rise and go or fare you well
No more auction block for me
no more driver's lash for me
If you see my Pompey, 30 yrs of age,
new breeches, plain stockings, negro shoes;
if you see my Anna, likely young mulatto
branded E on the right cheek, R on the left,
catch them if you can and notify
subscriber.
Catch them if you can, but it won't be
easy.
They'll dart underground when you try to
catch them,
plunge into quicksand, whirlpools, mazes,
turn into scorpions when you try to catch
them.
And before I'll be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave
North star and bonanza gold
I'm bound for the freedom, freedom-bound
and oh Susyanna don't you cry for me
Runagate
Runagate
II.
Rises from their anguish and
their power,
Harriet Tubman,
woman of earth, whipscarred,
a summoning, a shining
Mean to be free
And this was the way of it, brethren
brethren,
way we journeyed from Can't to Can.
Moon so bright and no place to hide,
the cry up and the patterollers riding,
hound dogs belling in bladed air.
And fear starts a-murbling, Never make it,
we'll never make it. Hush that now,
and she's turned upon us, levelled pistol
glinting in the moonlight:
Dead folks can't jaybird-talk, she says;
you keep on going now or die, she says.
Wanted Harriet Tubman alias The
General
alias Moses Stealer of Slaves
In league with Garrison Alcott
Emerson
Garrett Douglass Thoreau John
Brown
Armed and known to be Dangerous
Wanted Reward Dead or Alive
Tell me, Ezekiel, oh tell me do you see
mailed Jehovah coming to deliver me?
Hoot-owl calling in the ghosted
air,
five times calling to the hants
in the air.
Shadow of a face in the scary
leaves,
shadow of a voice in the
talking leaves:
Come ride-a my train
Oh that train, ghost-story train
through swamp and savanna movering
movering,
over trestles of dew, through caves of the
wish,
Midnight Special on a sabre track movering
movering,
first stop Mercy and the last Hallelujah.
Come ride-a my train
Mean mean mean to be free.
Summary:
Poem line 1-9:
These lines are a description of escaped slaves running in
the dark from their plantation where they were enslaved. Slave catchers have
sent hound dogs to track them, and hunters are hunting them as well. (Rewards
were offered for catching slaves.)
These escapees are
terrified, must cross a river, and are in the dark except they can see shifting
lights over the marsh at night.
The word runagate means
an escaped slave. The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses which
escapees would run to by night.
Poem line:15-17
These lines refer to some of the ways slaves escaped. Some
actually were hidden in carriages or coffins.
Shackles means chains or metal restraints used to hold prisoners. Slaves were kept in shackles when being
transported. Some may have escaped by being shackled.
Poem line: 19- 20
In Lines 19-20 No more auction block for me/mo more driver’s
lash for me, an old song called “No More Auction Block for Me” is quoted. This song was a song of the Civil War, sung
by black soldiers, who left slavery behind by joining the army, and in fact
were fighting to free all slaves.
Poem line:21- 29
Now a slave master’s voice is speaking. He is asking the
listener to watch for his escaped slaves and to notify him if they are
found. One is a man, Pompey, he calls
him “my” Pompey and tells how he is dressed. He feels that these escaped slaves
are his property and not really people.
When he talks about the woman or girl, he calls her a likely young
mulatto, which means her heritage is mixed race. She has brands on each cheek
on her face, and these initials might stand for the slave master’s names.
The slave master says that
slaves will not be easy to catch, that they will plunge into quicksand,
whirlpools, mazes. In other words, they
will hide anywhere in their desperation to be free.
He says they may even turn into
scorpions, which could mean that they can hide well, but also that they are not
harmless. Scorpions can sting their captors.
Poem Line: 30 – 34
When the protest song “Oh Freedom” by the singer Odetta is
referenced the lines 30-31 “ And before I’ll be a slave/I’ll be buried in my
grave, ” the poet is saying that
the urge for freedom overcomes fear of
danger and death. Escaping slaves faced
danger and many died, but still they chose the pursuit of freedom. Two songs
appear in lines 32-34. “Oh Susanna”, an
old American banjo tune, was actually rewritten to become “Song of the Free.”
Poem line:42-43
This is like a preachers voice calling his followers
brethren, which means brothers. He is saying that this is how the escaping
slaves reached the moment when they knew they could keep going even though the
journey was scary and incredibly hard. He also might be saying that in the
history of civil rights, black people had to go from feeling that the dream was
impossible to saying that it could be attained.
Poem line:48-53
Escaped slaves are terrified in the night, and their fear is
bubbling up in them (a-murbling.) Harriet Tubman is their conductor, that is,
she is leading them to the north. She points her pistol at them and tells them
to be quiet. She says that they cannot stop now because she cannot risk them
tattling to the authorities about the Underground Railroad, like the
jaybird. So they must keep running or be
shot to protect other escaping slaves.
Poem line:58-59
These lines refer to the wanted posters that were posted for
Harriet Tubman, because she was known to have brought many escaped slaves to
the north.
Poem line:62-63
An owl is calling five times to the ghosts in the air. Many escaped slaves died on the run. If they
were caught, they could be killed. This section refers to the ghosts or spirits
of the many who died trying to reach freedom.
Poem line: 70
The words “Midnight Special” in line 70 refer to a train,
specifically a train referenced in the traditional folk song, “Midnight
Special,” which was a song, which originated among prisoners in the south. This image adds another image of the train
which throughout the poem symbolizes escape to the north, to freedom. The word “movering in line 70 references an old spiritual called
“Old Ark’s A-Movering,” the refrain of which is, “The old ark’s a-movering and
I’m going home.” In those songs, going
home can mean going to heaven, which is the only way some slaves ever escaped
slavery. But during the days of the Underground Railroad, songs were used as a
means to escape. Sometimes information
about where to go or who to meet was contained in a song that had been
rewritten. Songs were also used for encouragement. And the freedom that once
had only meant heaven also meant actual freedom in the north.
Poem line: 72-73
These lines end the poem with an invitation for the reader to
ride the train to freedom. No matter how hard it may be, the voice here says
that above all this person intends to be free. The human spirit strives to be
free no matter the cost.
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