Etheridge Knight Analysis
“Etheridge Knight, Jr. (son of Etheridge, Sr. and Belzora Cozart Knight) was born in Corinth, Mississippi, on April 19, 1931. Mr. Knight grew up in Corinth and Paducah, Kentucky. He attended the local schools in the area and dropped out after the eighth grade. Knight joined the United States Army in 1947 and saw action during the Korean Conflict, where he was seriously wounded and developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol. After Knight’s discharge from the service, he turned to crime in order to support his habit, and in 1960 he was arrested for armed robbery. Knight was incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison from 1960 to 1968. In commenting on his transformation from soldier to convict to a poet, Knight penned: “I died in Korea from
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While incarcerated, Knight was visited by well-known poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Randolph Dudley. These encounters really encouraged Knight to pursue his writing career as he had a love for words. Another important aspect of the poet’s life is the era in which he was writing his poems, it was the time of the “The Black Art Movement, the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatist, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement.”
Etheridge Knight’s 1986 poem “Hard Rock Returns to Prison” demonstrates how the poet uses the poetic form as a voice to illustrate the injustice of the prison system and racial conflict through an imaginary character, Hard Rock.
This poem uses a fictional tale to dramatize the cruelty of the prison system and the techniques it uses to discipline the inmates, as well as shed light on racial injustice. The speaker draws the reader into the story with pathos base on how ‘Hard Rock” is treated for his behavioral problems, “The WORD was that Hard Rock wasn’t a mean nigger/ Anymore, that the doctors had bored a hole in his head/Cut out part of his brain/ and shot electricity Through the rest.” This gives insight into the poet’s mindset when he pens this piece, specifically focusing on how the prison system was a cruel place, especially for a black man struggling to stand up against the system once
While incarcerated, Knight was visited by well-known poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Randolph Dudley. These encounters really encouraged Knight to pursue his writing career as he had a love for words. Another important aspect of the poet’s life is the era in which he was writing his poems, it was the time of the “The Black Art Movement, the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatist, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement.”
Etheridge Knight’s 1986 poem “Hard Rock Returns to Prison” demonstrates how the poet uses the poetic form as a voice to illustrate the injustice of the prison system and racial conflict through an imaginary character, Hard Rock.
This poem uses a fictional tale to dramatize the cruelty of the prison system and the techniques it uses to discipline the inmates, as well as shed light on racial injustice. The speaker draws the reader into the story with pathos base on how ‘Hard Rock” is treated for his behavioral problems, “The WORD was that Hard Rock wasn’t a mean nigger/ Anymore, that the doctors had bored a hole in his head/Cut out part of his brain/ and shot electricity Through the rest.” This gives insight into the poet’s mindset when he pens this piece, specifically focusing on how the prison system was a cruel place, especially for a black man struggling to stand up against the system once