There are two currents of history in the author's poem, the visible history charted in events - the tribal losses of the American Indian and the tragedy of African enslavement - and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

There are two currents of history in the author's poem, the visible history charted in events - the tribal losses of the American Indian and the tragedy of African enslavement - and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.