English 2 Poetry Response - Essay Example

Knight’s harsh experiences resulted in lovely poetry which led to him being counted as one of the most reputable poets of the Black Arts Movement. This started in Harlem and only thrived on from there, encouraging the most creative of the colored people to let out their inner talents to show off to the world. This era led to the production of brilliant works of art, books, music, etc. and all by the African Americans. Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane is a poem being spoken by who seems to be one of the inmates.

The piece revolves around a man who is called Hard Rock, which is probably a hint, some foreshadowing as to what he is like, not just exterior but also the way he is mentally. The setting of the poem is in a prison where all the occupants are waiting quite impatiently for their one celebrated fellow prisoner. The narrator paints Hard Rock as someone who is a legend in the prison and has earned the respect of all, some of the prisoners even a little afraid of him and his courage. He comes off as a one minded, even arrogant individual who is being punished for whatever crime he is imprisoned for.

The different, terrible surroundings do not have any impact on him; he does not stop to think over his mistakes and quietly pass the time of his sentence. Instead, it is suggested several times that he gets into fights with the officers, maybe even baiting them on purpose so that he has an excuse to respond back, even going as far as to smacking “the captain with his dinner tray” (Knight). Maybe it is his need to prove his masculinity and act as the alpha male amongst so many prisoners, to show that he does not care about the authority, no one could make him bend according to their will.

As the speaker says, the man was “known not to take no shit from nobody” (Knight). These little rebellions often led to Hard Rock being punished but it was of no use. He was tortured and beaten and “had the scars to prove it” (Knight). Over here, the poet gives a very colorful and vivid description of the places where Hard Rock was injured due to being hit by those in charge. He writes of the “split purple lips” which makes one wonder how many times the man was punched on the mouth which must now be swollen due to the repeated pressure and of the “welts above” (Knight).

He gives us more colors to picture the man’s face in our minds with the “yellow eyes” (Knight). Then there is a permanent result of one of the beatings, a “long scar that cut across his temple and plowed through a thick canopy of kinky hair” (Knight). However, he rebelled one time too many and he was taken to the hospital. The doctors had performed tests to see whether he was finally considered as being safe enough to be let out or not. The prisoners had gathered in front of their bars to see what the result was.

But they were disappointed to see that the one man who they had depended on answering back to the officers was gone. The men jeered at Hard Rock but there was no reply in return. No swearing or threats or a punch in the face. Instead, the prisoner stood, “just grinned and looked silly”, his eyes blank as if he had lost all his spirit, that his was a body without a soul (Knight). It seemed like whatever the doctors had done had worked, the man was no longer responding to anything except with a goofy smile.

His limbs may still be strong enough to