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1. A “kitchenette” was an apartment divided up into a series of small rooms which were rented out, sometimes to entire families. How does Brooks create the feeling of many people living together? What details does she include to dramatize such close quarters? 2. What is the tone of the poem?
"kitchenette building" was published in Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks's first collection, A Street in Bronzeville (1945). The poem is about the experience of Black Americans in Chicago in the 1940s, when racial discrimination forced many impoverished families into cramped and unsanitary housing units known as kitchenettes.
- Summary of Kitchenette Building
- Themes in Kitchenette Building
- Poetic Structure
- Literary Devices
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Similar Poetry
Throughout this poem, the speakerdescribes the day to day life of a group of people who are living in poverty. The “we” that Brooks uses in the poem encompasses everyone in this speaker’s vicinity. No one she knows can afford to spend time on dreams, not when there are much more important things to focus on like “rent” and family needs.
In‘kitchenette building’ the poet engages with themes of poverty, dreams/hopes, as well as dissatisfaction. She does not spend a great amount of time focusing on the last of these, dissatisfaction. It is something that is implied through her description of the day to day life of this speaker. She clearly wants more and likes the idea of a dream but...
‘kitchenette building’ by Gwendolyn Brooks is a four-stanza poem that is separated into sets of three and four lines. The first, third, and fourth stanzas all have three lines in them while the second is extended to four lines. Brooks chose to make use of free verse in this poem, although there are some examples of rhyme. For instance, the first an...
In ‘kitchenette building’ Brooks makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to personification, juxtaposition, andimagery. The first of these, personification, is seen towards the end of the poem when the speaker describes a dream like a child. It has to be cared for tenderly and consistently so that it doesn’t wither ...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘kitchenette building,’ the speaker begins by describing herself and those around her as “things”. It’s unclear at first why she does this or who else she’s thinking of. But, these people are the subjectof “dry” or boring “hours” and “involuntary plans”. This suggests that they are part of a plan that they didn’t have a hand in. They are “Grayed in” she adds, and “gray”. They are controlled by the mundanity, and perhaps suffering, of their lives and they are themselves...
Stanza Two
In the second stanza of ‘kitchenette building,’ the speaker poses a hypothetical. She uses imagery to describe the dream and bring in a depiction of the day to day sights and smells of the building. The dream is pretty, “white and violet” and maybe, she wonders, it can rise above the “onion fumes” and “fried potatoes”. Can it outlast all of this? As well as yesterday’s garbage and still be able to “Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms”. These lines are still part of the rhetorical questi...
Stanza Three
One of the issues with the dream’s survival might be the people themselves. Their lives are so hard, the notion of a dream might be hard to accept or “let…in”. Brooks persons the dream in the next lines, describing it as something, perhaps a child, that has to be cared for. Someone who had a dream would need to “keep it very clean” and “warm it”. This is the only way to keep it from falling apart. Is it possible that they would be able to ever “let it begin?” Is there a time when the dream co...
There are many moving poems out there about poverty and the struggle for day to day survival. Numerous poets have experienced poverty for themselves and memorialized those experiences for future generations. Others saw it around them and penned their reactions to the sights they saw. Readers should look to the following poems for more examples: ‘Yo...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
It’s a device that Brooks exploits to particular effect in “kitchenette building,” a poem that asks us to think about what happens to people when social forces squeeze them into smaller spaces and closer proximity.
kitchenette building. Gwendolyn Brooks. We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong. Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.” But could a dream send up through onion fumes. Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes. And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall,
Kitchenette Building. We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong. Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.”. But could a dream send up through onion fumes. Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes.
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Who is Gwendolyn Brooks?
Kitchenette building. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was an American poet and the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, for Annie Allen (1950). She was named Poet...
