Gwendolyn Brooks

Loiters in Mississippi. A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon. A very long title for a very controversial poem about the tragic death of Emmett Till. Gwendolyn Brooks tackles the Emmett Till case in a way that has never been done before. Brooks gives an artistic narrative that shows what happened in the Bryant’s household after the trial. She also challenges the reader to adopt a whole new perspective when it comes to Carolyn Bryant, the woman…

Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell,” emphasizes the role that dreams play in the narrator’s life. This traditional sonnet is included in the collection, “Gay Chaps at the Bar,” that introduces the narrators as young soldiers recently returned from war. Favored by writers in the Harlem Renaissance, Brooks wrote the collection in strict sonnet format with iambic pentameter. Yet, the poem does not mirror the rigidity of the sonnet because of Brooks’ careful use…

Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "kitchenette building" is really impressed me, because I found myself understanding it in a different way each time I read it, sometimes pessimistically and sometimes optimistically. Brooks uses the word "kitchenette" in the title so that the reader can have a clear idea about the size of the building and the conditions of people who live there. Brooks also uses words which have connotation to help us understand the theme and the tone of the poem. The poem is about poor…

Location and Description Bronzeville is community area 38, one of Chicago’s designated neighborhoods. It is one of the well-defined Chicago Community Areas. Located on the South Side of Chicago, with Cermak Road, 22nd Street, on the north, Washington Park on the South, Federal Street to its west and Lake Michigan as its eastern border this area is rich in culture and history. Bronzeville also includes the Washington Park Court district that was declared a landmark on October 2, 1991. The…

In the fifth line, Brooks declares that she “[wants] to go in the back yard now,” representing how she has now grown up enough and is ready to go out on her own. In the sixth line, she says that she may want to go “down the alley,” illustrating how she has become more rebellious than before and wants to experience even more than she did before. In the first stanza, Brooks only wanted to “peek at the back,” but now she wants to go in the back and go down the alley. The “alley” is used to…

“The Sonnet-Ballad” was written in 1949, from the mind of Gwendolyn Brooks, a highly regarded poet with the honor of being the first black author to win the Pulitzer prize. Though the sonnet isn’t inspired by any events in Brooks’ life, it is part of an entire book by the name of “Annie Allen”, the second volume of the series. Therefore, the women in this poem is Annie Allen. This snippet from the book speaks of Annie’s grief and loss. Her lover had went off to the war and she mourns the…

but whoever is telling the poem, could hear cold splinters breaking. The father calls the narrator to get ready. The narrator’s shoes were polished. From how the story is told, the narrator is the son of the father. The poems “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, and “We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray, have two significant occurrences…

Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell,” emphasizes the role that dreams play in the narrator’s life, by showing the strength that they lend to him while he suffers in hell. Brooks uses the themes of hunger and insecurity as well as the imagery of “bread” and “honey” to represent the vital, essential need for dreams. This traditional sonnet is included in the sonnet sequence, “Gay Chaps at the Bar,” that introduces the narrators as young soldiers recently…

In Blyden Jackson’s 1953 review of Gwendolyn Brooks’ first novel, he asked, “just what kind of novel is Maud Martha?” (Jackson 436). Maud Martha possesses aspects of the novel such as setting, characters, and relationships between those characters. However, though the novel is linear, there is no defining plot. Instead, we are presented with a series of lyric vignettes. There is no specific drama, no propelling action which can clearly define Maud Martha as a traditional novel. Yet, throughout…

structuring creates repetition and rhythm throughout the work. Brooks follows an AABBCCDD rhyme scheme, with each couplet having rhyming words at the end of their sentences such as “cool” and “school,” “late” and “straight,” “sin” and “gin,” and, lastly, “june” and “soon.” This technique makes it easier for readers to follow along. In addition, the length of this poem is significant in that it mimics the fast-paced lifestyle that Brooks is referring to. The poem consists of eight lines with each…