A Song In The Front Yard Poem Summary

In life, there is always a front yard and a back yard. The front yard generally remains trimmed and manicured, a shining example of sophistication and splendor, whereas the backyard is a wasted effort that no one bothers to tend to. In the poem “A Song In The Front Yard” by Gwendolyn Brooks, imagery, rhyme, and symbolism are used to describe the barriers between the “front yard” children and the “backyard” children.
The overall meaning of this poem is to showcase the stark difference between the “sheltered child”, a shy girl who yearns for more freedom and the “unsheltered ‘charity children’” who possess said freedoms only through a lack of structure in their own lives. Brooks describes the socioeconomic barriers through imagery with the “backyard” and “front yard”. While it may seem like the speaker is close …show more content…
Brooks portrays how she longs for the freedom to explore the backyard “where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows” (Line 3). Using the symbolism of an unruly weed versus an immaculate rose, the speaker highlights how she is bored of her clean-cut lifestyle and longs to see “the hungry weed”, a symbol of a disorderly life. In Brooks’ viewpoint, going “down to the alley” (Line 6), a place where children without well-kept areas play, is her idea of “slumming it”. The alley not only symbolizes “a good time” (Line 8) but also a passageway that connects everyone, regardless of money, race, or social status. Brooks continues further expanding on the contrast between her front yard and backyard through rhyme. When she claims “George’ll be taken to Jail soon or late / (On account of last winter he sold our back gate)” (Lines 15 through 16) she is using rhyme to draw more attention to the weight of her words. Just as the lines above, in which Brooks’ mother warns her how “Johnnie Mae will grow up to be bad woman” (Lines 13 through 14), there is the underlying assumption to