Quotation by Robert Earl Hayden

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My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear
worse than blows that hateful

Words could bring, the face that I
no longer knew or loved. . . .

Robert Earl Hayden

Robert Earl Hayden (1913–1980), U.S. poet. The Whipping (l. 13–18). . .

Collected Poems [Robert Hayden]. Frederick Glaysher, ed. (1985) Liveright.

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