“Art is not an escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of facing life” (Berry, Wendell). These are the insightful words once spoken by American poet and educator Robert Hayden. Despite being raised in an unstable home, moving from family to foster care, in addition to struggling with visual impairment, Hayden discovered an interest in black history and poetry that would bring him more later great recognition and great success. And he would do so by using his extensive study of black history to “illuminate the black American experience” (Contemporary Authors Online). By writing about historical figures such as Frederick Douglas, Malcolm Robert Earl Hayden was born on August 4, 1913 under his birth name. Asa Bundy Sheffey. It was not until he later lived with his adoptive parents, William and Sue Ellen Hayden, that his name was legally changed. Hayden grew up in a poor neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, known as Paradise Valley. After witnessing many years of physical and verbal confrontations between his adoptive parents, he suffered from depression and used poetry as a means of escape. In 1932, Hayden graduated from high school and attended Detroit City College, which later became known as Wayne State University. At the age of 27, he published his first collection of poems, Heart-Shape in the Dust, and then attended the University of Michigan. There he was taken under the wing of the Anglo-American poet Wystan Hugh Auden, who soon became a huge influence in Hayden's writings. He admired a variety of poets, Edna St. Vincent, Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes to name a few, and developed an interest in African Americans. is common in contemporary literature written by black people” (Mann, James). Works Cited Berry, Wendell. “The real work.” The Writer's Almanac. Np, August 4, 2012. Web. December 5, 2013. “Robert E(arl) Hayden. » Contemporary authors online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Information Resource Center. Internet. December 5, 2013. Mann, James. “Robert E(arl) Hayden.” American Poets Since World War II. Ed. Donald J. Greiner. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 5. Literary Resource Center. Internet. December 5, 2013.Johnson, Jeannine. “A preview of “These Winter Sundays”.” Poetry for students. Detroit: gale. Literary Resource Center. Internet. December 5, 2013. Gallagher, Ann M. “Those Winter Sundays” by Hayden. (Robert Hayden)." The Explainer 51.4 (1993): 245+. Literary Resource Center. Internet. December 5, 2013. "Robert Hayden".. 2013.