Symbolism In How To Be Drawn By Terrance Hayes

Every poem constructs a perception for every reader and most readers will have a different outcome from one another. In How To Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes, the author adds many hidden messages and symbols in the poems for the readers to uncover, and in many times it tends to be difficult. It takes a lot of examination to reveal what the speaker or author is trying to assert. Hayes’ uses many social and historical references such as racism into his poems to depict the anger within the speaker. One of the many themes that prevail in many of his poems is a sense of being trapped such as the poem, “Like Mercy”. The message that Haye’s is trying to portray in the poem is, of a priest serving God, but not agreeing with God at times causing him to

As from any reader, perspective is key and is different from everyone else. From my own perspective, I see two sides of who the speaker might be. The poem stated “When I stepped out like a man of God”(10) concludes that the speaker might be a priest which actually ties the whole poem together. Initially, I had thought the speaker might’ve been a man who lost a significant person in his life and blaming God for taking that person away, however it’s the priest who is closed off from the outside and can not judge but simply believe that God’s plan is right, even when it doesn’t seem right. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker referenced the song “I Want to Be More Like Jesus” by Keith Green, the song talks about how Jesus can live with all the sin and how he handles it so well, and Green wants to be like Jesus because he can’t bare to deal with all the sin he’s endured. This song relates heavily to the poem because the priest sees with his naked eye of all the sin that is out in the world and he can’t do anything about it which adds on a lot of weight onto his morals and