Obviously the do-gooders at DHR would consider Robert Hayden's 1970 poem "The Whipping" a clear-cut description of severe child abuse, but the poem goes much deeper than that because everyone in the poem is a victim. Of course the old woman striking the boy "till the stick breaks/ in her hand" is an example of abusive behavior; also the speaker of the poem recalls "woundlike memories" of a violent and abusive childhood beating by someone whose face was so contorted with anger that it was a face that he "no longer knew or loved." However, the poem goes deeper than those obvious cases of abuse because it also identifies the old woman herself as a victim of beatings all her life -- a victim of "lifelong hidings/ she has had to bear." Keeping in mind that Hayden's poems are almost always about the lives of poor urban African-Americans and that an old black woman in 1970 would have experienced the worst that segregated society had to offer, it is fairly easy to imagine some of the figurative beatings life has always dealt her; it is also easy to see that her violent outburst is directed not only against the boy but also is her frustrated reaction against the hard life she has led. As Hayden puts it, she is "purged --/ avenged in part for lifelong hidings/ she has had to bear." DHR might not want to excuse her for her violent behavior, but the careful reader of the poem will realize that everyone in the poem -- the boy, the speaker, and the old woman -- is a victim and everyone in the poem deserves a break.