16 pages • 32 minutes read
Gwendolyn BrooksA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poem’s primary thematic concern is the effects of aging—specifically, aging as a woman. The first two lines describe the three societally expected roles of women: mother, wife, and sex object. However, this woman is “[a]lready […] no longer looked at” (Line 1). As she ages, the woman disappears from sight. She’s even “put [...] away” (Line 2) like the childhood toys of her grown children. Her “husband and lovers” (Line 4) are only “pleasant or somewhat polite” (Line 4)—in other words, not passionate—now that she is no longer young.
Once these prescribed roles disappear for a woman as she ages, society leaves her no clear purpose; these roles are limited to the youthful. The rest of the poem focuses only on the absences in the speaker’s life. She is “summer-gone” (Line 10), without a “warm house / That is fitted with [her] need” (Lines 15-16), and “dusty” (Line 19) from no longer moving. Her new life is now nothing but “echoes” (Line 18) and “intimations” (Line 21). The speaker feels that her life is empty now.
Still, the speaker is not completely bitter about aging, as it does provide “dear relief” (Line 22) from societal expectations and the male gaze. While aging does make her life a “[d]esert” (Line 22), it also gives her a moment of peace.
By Gwendolyn Brooks
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi...
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon
Gwendolyn Brooks
Boy Breaking Glass
Boy Breaking Glass
Gwendolyn Brooks
Cynthia in the Snow
Cynthia in the Snow
Gwendolyn Brooks
Maud Martha
Maud Martha
Gwendolyn Brooks
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell
Gwendolyn Brooks
Speech to the Young
Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Ballad of Rudolph Reed
The Ballad of Rudolph Reed
Gwendolyn Brooks
The birth in a narrow room
The birth in a narrow room
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Blackstone Rangers
The Blackstone Rangers
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock
The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Crazy Woman
The Crazy Woman
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Lovers of the Poor
The Lovers of the Poor
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Mother
The Mother
Gwendolyn Brooks
the rites for Cousin Vit
the rites for Cousin Vit
Gwendolyn Brooks
To Be in Love
To Be in Love
Gwendolyn Brooks
To The Diaspora
To The Diaspora
Gwendolyn Brooks
Ulysses
Ulysses
Gwendolyn Brooks
We Real Cool
We Real Cool
Gwendolyn Brooks