The Undefeated

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2019

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Poem Analysis

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Related Poems

“The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes (1925)

One of Hughes’s most famous poems, “The Weary Blues” is a poem about a Black blues player in a bar in the 1920s. The poem is both a beautiful depiction of the man playing the blues as well as a powerful metaphor for what life was like for a Black man in this time. The poem is written in a unique free verse style that swings between the poem and the blues singer’s lyrics, and it makes use of many poetic devices like onomatopoeia, irony, and rhyme. Alexander alludes to this poem in “The Undefeated.”

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1959)

Another poem Alexander alludes to, this famous short jazz poem by Gwendolyn Brooks highlights issues of rebellion and social disillusion. The poem depicts a group of boys at a pool hall and is written from their perspective using the first-person plural pronoun “we” at the beginning of each sentence. In the poem, the boys describe what they are doing, including playing pool and drinking, but at the end of the poem, there is a moment of realization when the boys say, “We die soon.” While the poem is short and relatively simple, its use of striking rhymes and repetition, and its social relevance to youth counterculture in the 1950s has made it an enduring picture of the period.

“My People” by Langston Hughes (1925)

Another Hughes poem, Alexander alludes to it with his line about the night being beautiful. This poem has a similar tone to Alexander’s poem, as it celebrates the beauty of Black people. Hughes compares the faces of his people to the night and their eyes to the stars, and at the end of the poem he says that not only are their faces beautiful but so are their souls. Alexander’s poem can be read as an extension of this sentiment almost 100 years later.

Further Literary Resources

“Nobel Lecture” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964)

In this acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that Alexander alludes to in “The Undefeated,” King argues against what he saw as the three evils of society: racial injustice, poverty, and war. He spends an equal time on each evil, using language similar to his other work, including his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King argues that while humanity has progressed technologically, it has regressed on a moral level, and he believes the best way to fight the evils of the world is through non-violent direct action. King expresses his belief that while the challenges of the world will not easily be solved, he does believe and hope that humanity will be able to eventually come together and rise above evil and hatred.

“This is for ‘The Undefeated’: A New Picture Book Celebrates Black Brilliance” with Ari Shapiro and Kadir Nelson (2019)

In this interview with Kadir Nelson, the artist of “The Undefeated,” Nelson explains his process and some of the meanings behind his images. He discusses how he interpreted some of the lines of the poem literally, like how how he put the image of Jesse Owens with the line about hurdling history. He also discusses the difficulty in creating images of things like slavery. He says that while it is an artist’s job to create visually interesting and beautiful things, he also believes it is important for an artist to portray truth, which is why the image he made to depict slavery is brutal and disturbing.

The 1619 Project by The New York Times (2019)

The 1619 Project is an ongoing multimedia report by various reporters from The New York Times. The goal of this project is to tell the story of America from the perspective of African Americans with specific focus on how the legacy of slavery has and continues to influence all aspects of American life. The project analyzes issues of race, culture, economics, and all other aspects of society. While the project met with much anger and backlash from a number of commentators, most credible critics view the project as a fresh and necessary view on American history that shines a light on many issues that have traditionally been ignored or suppressed.

Listen to Poem

Kwame Alexander reads “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander

In this video, Alexander reads his poem for a group of students. At the end, he includes their specific names when he says who he dedicates the poem to.