ABSTRACT
R obert Hayden occupies an important transitional role in thehistory of African-American poetry. His work and career offer a link between the Harlem Renaissance poets who preceded him and the Black Nationalist writers and their respondents who began to gain prominence at the end of his life. While he is most often read as an important poet in the tradition of AfricanAmerican writing, Hayden's work also demonstrates the inextricably entwined nature of any history of either American or African-American poetry in the 20th century.
