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Discover the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, a prominent African-American poet of the twentieth century, through ten of her finest poems. Learn about her themes, styles, and influences, from 'Speech to the Young' to 'We Real Cool'.
Learn about the life and achievements of Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the most influential and widely read 20th-century American poets. Explore her books, poems, awards, and activism for Black literature and culture.
- Reflecting African-American Life
- The Children of The Poor
- The Mother
- We Real Cool
- To Be in Love
- Sadie and Maud
- A Sunset of The City
- Boy Breaking Glass
- The Bean Eaters
- Jessie Mitchell’s Mother
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Much of her poetry reflected on urban African-American life, though its themes were universal to the human experience. Her output was impressive, encompassing more than twenty books, including children’s books. Brooks broke into book publishing in 1945 with A Street In Bronzeville, referring to an area in the Chicago’s South Side. It was an auspici...
1 People who have no children can be hard: Attain a mail of ice and insolence: Need not pause in the fire, and in no sense Hesitate in the hurricane to guard. And when wide world is bitten and bewarred They perish purely, waving their spirits hence Without a trace of grace or of offense To laugh or fail, diffident, wonder-starred … Full text of “Th...
Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get, The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair, The singers and workers that never handled the air. You will never neglect or beat Them, or silence or buy with a sweet. You will never wind up the sucking-thumb Or scuttle off ghosts that come … 1. Full tex...
The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late … 1. Full text of “We Real Cool” 2. Analysis of We Real Cool (from The Bean Eaters, 1960) . . . . . . . . . . .
To be in love Is to touch with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well. You look at things Through his eyes. A cardinal is red. A sky is blue. Suddenly you know he knows too … 1. Full text of “To Be in Love” 2. Analysis of To Be in Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maud went to college. Sadie stayed home. Sadie scraped life With a fine toothed comb. She didn’t leave a tangle in Her comb found every strand. Sadie was one of the livingest chicks In all the land … 1. Full text of “Sadie and Maud” 2. Analysis of “Sadie and Maud” (from Selected Poems, Harper & Row, 1963) . . . . . . . . . . .
Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love. My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls, Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite And night is night. It is a real chill out, The genuine thing … 1. Full text of “A Sunset of the City” 2. Analysis of “A Sunset of the City” (from Select...
Whose broken window is a cry of art (success, that winks aware as elegance, as a treasonable faith) is raw: is sonic: is old-eyed première. Our beautiful flaw and terrible ornament. Our barbarous and metal little man … 1. Full text of “A Boy Breaking Glass” 2. Analysis of “A Boy Breaking Glass” (from Blacks, Third World Press, 1987) . . . . . . . ....
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair. Dinner is a casual affair. Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware. Two who are Mostly Good … 1. Full text of “The Bean Eaters” 2. Analysis of “The Bean Eaters” (from The Bean Eaters, 1960) . . . . . . . . . . . Gwendolyn Brooks Quotes on Writing and Life . . . . . . . . . . .
Into her mother’s bedroom to wash the ballooning body. “My mother is jelly-hearted and she has a brain of jelly: Sweet, quiver-soft, irrelevant. Not essential. Only a habit would cry if she should die. A pleasant sort of fool without the least iron. . . . Are you better, mother, do you think it will come today? 1. Full text of “Jesse Mitchell’s Mot...
Explore the first lines and links to full texts and analyses of 11 poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Learn about her life, themes, and poetic style in this roundup of her classic works.
Explore the poems of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Learn about her themes, emotions, topics, and forms in her poems such as Riot, Primer for Blacks, and The Bean Eaters.
Explore the life and work of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner and a social justice champion. Find poems, essays, videos, and more resources on this legendary poet and her impact on Chicago and beyond.
A poem by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who explores the contrast between the front yard and the back yard of a black family in Chicago. The poem expresses the speaker's desire to escape the confines of the front yard and join the fun and freedom of the back yard and the alley.
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Learn about the life and work of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize. Explore her poems that capture the experiences and voices of black people in Chicago and beyond.
