form was never intended to exclude or be un-useful to the Black readers. Her cycle of poetry from “A Street in Bronzeville”, “Annie Allen”, “Bean Eaters”, and her post 1967 writings all embody the way in which Brooks saw race relations and poverty in America. Each of her selection series speak to ear that need to hear the truth and her dictions demands her readers to reflect, change, or follow suit. Her negative criticism pushes scholars to question and evaluate her elite poetic elements and content. Brooks’s development as a poet did not leave her in modernist area questioning Black identity and progress, rather, she continued her process of advocacy and challenging readers to another dimension that many critics frame as a transformation.
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In this stage of her poetry, Brooks extended her lyrical craft to free verse and sermon style to read the ear of those in her community. However, as ford contends Brooks attempts to get rid of the European form: “She had been trying to distinguish her new poetry from her pre–black-consciousness work for over a decade by then, but because so much of her earlier work already embodied her revolutionary poetic ideals, she was never entirely successful” (372). One of poems that represents her voice to the African American community “Sermon on the Warpland”:
And several strengths from drowsiness campaigned but spoke in Single Sermon on the warpland. And went about the warpland saying No.
“My people, black and black, revile the River.
Say that the River turn the River. (451)
Although Brooks did not abandon the European form completely, “Sermon on the Warpland” is an example of her extension writing style. Here, her poem reflects the free verse and less of a stanzaic style. Werner reasons, “this technical shift parallels her rejection of the philosophical premises of Euro-American culture” (159). Agreeably, in comparison to her introduction to the “Anniad”: Think of Sweet and Chocolate; Left to folly or to fate, Whom the lower gods berate; Physical and underfed Fancying on the …show more content…
Her use of the compound word “warpland” appears to be a metaphor for America. The two words are warp and land; Cambridge dictionary defines warp as “to twist or turn out of shape so that it is no longer straight”. Warp alludes to the twisted or out shape conditions America is in. She gives the direct subject in her title. Brooks’s line “and several strengths from drowsiness” ratifies an awakening of Black consciousness from a state of paralysis. She is calling the African American community to awaken and change the course of things in her following line: My people, black and black, revile the River (154). The sermon begins with “my people…” and flows throughout the rest of the poem, but before she begins the sermon she tells her audience to reject the status quo. African Americans cannot rest in the social inequalities and lack of opportunities while accepting
In this stage of her poetry, Brooks extended her lyrical craft to free verse and sermon style to read the ear of those in her community. However, as ford contends Brooks attempts to get rid of the European form: “She had been trying to distinguish her new poetry from her pre–black-consciousness work for over a decade by then, but because so much of her earlier work already embodied her revolutionary poetic ideals, she was never entirely successful” (372). One of poems that represents her voice to the African American community “Sermon on the Warpland”:
And several strengths from drowsiness campaigned but spoke in Single Sermon on the warpland. And went about the warpland saying No.
“My people, black and black, revile the River.
Say that the River turn the River. (451)
Although Brooks did not abandon the European form completely, “Sermon on the Warpland” is an example of her extension writing style. Here, her poem reflects the free verse and less of a stanzaic style. Werner reasons, “this technical shift parallels her rejection of the philosophical premises of Euro-American culture” (159). Agreeably, in comparison to her introduction to the “Anniad”: Think of Sweet and Chocolate; Left to folly or to fate, Whom the lower gods berate; Physical and underfed Fancying on the …show more content…
Her use of the compound word “warpland” appears to be a metaphor for America. The two words are warp and land; Cambridge dictionary defines warp as “to twist or turn out of shape so that it is no longer straight”. Warp alludes to the twisted or out shape conditions America is in. She gives the direct subject in her title. Brooks’s line “and several strengths from drowsiness” ratifies an awakening of Black consciousness from a state of paralysis. She is calling the African American community to awaken and change the course of things in her following line: My people, black and black, revile the River (154). The sermon begins with “my people…” and flows throughout the rest of the poem, but before she begins the sermon she tells her audience to reject the status quo. African Americans cannot rest in the social inequalities and lack of opportunities while accepting