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Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Project Presentation
- 1. the mother by Gwendolyn Brooks Presentation by Nicole Calais
- 2. About The Poetess • Born June 17, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Died December 3, 2000 in Chicago, Illinois. • Wrote about the everyday lives of the urban black community • She was the author of more than twenty books of poetry • In her early career her poems had a more technical form and sophisticated word play - more intellectual and scholarly - focusing on oppression. • Her poetic format and style changed as she became more politically aware.
- 3. Gwendolyn Brooks Achievements • By 1934 Brooks was a part of the Chicago Defender staff and published almost one hundred of her poems in a weekly column. • In 1950 she was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize • President John Kennedy invited her to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962 • In 1968 she was named the Poet Laureate of Illinois • In 1985 she was the first black woman appointed as a consultant (Poet Laureate) in poetry to the Library of Congress
- 4. the mother Gwendolyn Brooks 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. You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh, Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye. I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. I have contracted. I have eased My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck. I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized Your luck And your lives from your unfinished reach, If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths, If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate. Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?-- Since anyhow you are dead. Or rather, or instead, You were never made. But that too, I am afraid, Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said? You were born, you had body, you died. It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried. Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All.
- 5. Speaker • A woman, possibly a mother “Abortions will not let you forget/ You remember the children you got that you did not get.” (lines 1-2) “Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.” (line 10) • Speaker uses “I” and “my” and talks about abortion “I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children.” (line 11) • As far as tone, in this poem it is mostly apologetic, yet hopeful. • Speaker expresses guilt and remorse for their actions
- 6. Themes • Mourning – there is obviously some guilt “why should I whine?/ Whine that the crime was other than mine?--/ since anyhow you are dead.” (lines 22- 24) • Forgiveness – the speaker talks about all the milestones the “child” will not have “if I sinned, if I seized/ your luck (lines 14-15) “If I stole your births…If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths” (lines 17-20) • Regret - the speaker tries to justify their actions “…even in my deliberateness, I was not deliberate.” (line 21)
- 7. 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. You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh, Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye. I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. I have contracted. I have eased My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck. I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized Your luck And your lives from your unfinished reach, If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths, If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate. Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?-- Since anyhow you are dead. Or rather, or instead, You were never made. But that too, I am afraid, Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said? You were born, you had body, you died. It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried. Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All. A A B B C C D D E E F G H G H I J J K K L M M N N O O P Q Q R S R Irony - distance between what is said and what is meant Metaphor - An implied comparison Anaphora – repetition of words or phrases Personification – giving human abilities to an inanimate object Apostrophe – addressing a nonexistent person or an inanimate object Figures of Speech No euphemisms for “death” or “abortion”
- 8. 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. You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh, Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye. I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. I have contracted. I have eased My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck. I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized Your luck And your lives from your unfinished reach, If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths, If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate. Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?-- Since anyhow you are dead. Or rather, or instead, You were never made. But that too, I am afraid, Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said? You were born, you had body, you died. It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried. Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All. A A B B C C D D E E F G H G H I J J K K L M M N N O O P Q Q R S R Sounds Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants Alliteration – repetition of consonant sounds in a series of words Rhyme – repetition of syllables • Lack of conjunctions • Free verse, partial couplet rhyme scheme • Song-like sound in the first stanza
- 9. Poetic Form • The poem is written in free verse • No regular meter, but there are many soft syllables in the poem. The stronger words contain the stressed syllables “Since anyhow you are dead” - soft, stress/soft/soft, soft, soft, stress (line 24) “You were never made” - soft, soft, soft/ stress, soft (line 26) “…my dim killed children.” – soft. stress, stress, soft/stress (Line 11) • The rhythm of the poem is evocative of a song • Breaking the rhyme scheme correlates to speakers’ change in emotions • The stanzas are different lengths