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The poem The Blue Terrance is a poem about the past and thinking about all of the hard times, or the blues, that came with the past.  This idea is seen right away as the speaker calls himself “The black boy that not even the buck-toothed girl took a liking to.”  By saying the buck toothed girl didn’t like him means that it is pretty embarrassing because whether there was actually a buck toothed girl or not, if she doesn’t like you then no one is going to which is really sad.   Part of this has to do with race too considering that the speaker mentions the fact that he is black makes it seem that they think that is part of the reason why he is unliked.  This theme continues by saying “Suppose you had to wipe the sweat from the brow of a righteous woman.”  This puts you in the shoes of someone who is a situation that is not ideal and one that most people wouldn’t want to be in.  The fact that they are wiping someone's brow means they are probably lower class, only adding to the hard times and the blues.  This is added onto when the speaker says, “That’s why the blues will never go out of fashion.”  Yes the blues may be a genre that is relatively old but the fact that people can be going through hard times alway means that they will never be out of date and someone will always be listening to them to relate to their lives and what is going on.  Just like other poems of hayes we see the important of music at this point.   Lastly we see that the speaker writes all of this because they are actually feeling this way and find comfort in the blues.  The speaker says, “Baby yes I’m lonesome and I’m blue.”  By saying that he is blue obviously relates to the poems title considering the poets name is Terrance and the name of the poem is the Blue Terrance we are able to see how blue he really is.  He writes all of this to show others why the blues don’t go out of date and actually are relatable to all people at all times especially in the past.

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The Poem At Pegasus by Terrance Hayes is a poem about how music is impactful in the life of a person and can make you feel so many ways.  In the first stanza we start to see the connection to people and how they feel about music when it is said that some people “Are like those crazy women...when he refused to sing.”  Here we are able to see how music makes people feel crazy when they aren’t able to hear it because it is such an important part of someone's life.  In addition to this, this theme continues on in the 3-5 stanzas when the speaker alludes to being a boy.  It is explained that they used to play around in the creek no matter how disgusting it was while they would, “Slap music on [their] skin.”  The idea of wanting to hear music alludes to the past memories of being a boy playing around so freely just wanting to hear music and enjoy themselves.  Along with this the speaker says, “By the music’s spinning light, one man slips his thumb into the mouth of an old one.”  This idea of putting your thumb in your mouth puts the image of a baby into your head.  By saying the music makes you feel like a baby means there is no trouble in the world just you and the music making you feel happy.  After this we start to see the transition of how the music makes you feel ways that you felt before when you were listening to that music.  We start to see how the speaker is now relating hearing that music to past events of him and his friend in the creek.  Now that those events were so long ago, he is not the one who feels this way any more it is a new generation and he can tell based on, “the way the dance floor takes them.”  By saying there is a dance floor it puts the image of people dancing with the music and feeling a way that you can’t explain.  Now that it is someone else’s turn to go back in time with the music the speaker is more of a spectator watching in from the outside.

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Terrance Hayes is a poet from Columbia South Carolina who is 47 years old.  Hayes studied at Coker College where he earned his BA and the University of Pittsburgh where he earned his MFA.  Hayes’ poems are mainly about current issues with today's society, whether that is culture, race or even the feeling of being in America during the 2016 election.  This is a main thing that Hayes liked to write about as he wrote around 70 sonnets about the 2016 elections.  Hayes obviously writes poetry but also teaches poetry also.  Hayes has taught at Carnegie Mellon, University of Alabama and University of Pittsburgh and is currently a professor at New York University where he teachers English.  Hayes has held position of the New York Times Magazine Poetry Editor and was a guest editor of The Best American Poetry.  Hayes has been seriously producing literature since the early 2000’s and has won multiple awards for his work such as the Whiters writing award, multiple pushcart awards, and the NAACP image award for poetry.  Hayes is still writing poetry today but is focusing more on being a professor at NYU.

Bibliography
Poem Hunter writers . “Terrance Hayes - Terrance Hayes Biography Poem Hunter.” PoemHunter.com, 2018,

www.poemhunter.com/terrance-hayes/biography/.

Poetry Foundation Writers. “Terrance Hayes.” Poetry Foundation,

Poetry Foundation, 2019,

www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/terrance-hayes.

Terrance Hayes Website . “About.” Terrance Hayes, 25 Sept. 2018,

terrancehayes.com/about/.

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At Pegasus https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/at-pegasus/

The Blue Terrance https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-blue-terrance/

Cocktails with Orpheus https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cocktails-with-orpheus/

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https://www.commonpodcast.com/home/2017/1/20/episode-18-terrance-hayes

Interview where they discuss Hayes and he recites a sonnet

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https://www.pshares.org/issues/winter-2010-11/about-terrance-hayes

About Terrance Hayes

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/02/the-politics-and-play-of-terrance-hayes

About Terrance Hayes, his role in writing about politics