17 pages 34 minutes read

Gwendolyn Brooks

The birth in a narrow room

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1949

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

Children of the Poor” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1949)

From the same collection as “the birth in the narrow room,” the poem reflects on the struggles of disenfranchised parents. As such the poem can be read as a complimentary perspective to “the birth”—how to care for a child when love is not enough, when the child feels like the “little lifting of helplessness.” Money cannot buy happiness—Brooks is not so crass. But money would secure stability and give a parent a chance to comfort their children.

On Imagination” by Phillis Wheatley (1773)

Brooks often acknowledged her creative debt to Wheatley, a slave in the days of American Revolution. Brooks admired Wheatley’s mastery of the forms of British poetry and her deft use of those models despite the reality of her life as an enslaved person. Indeed, this poem describes how Wheatley can find joyous escape and authentic liberation through her fancy, an idea Brooks explores in the second stanza of this poem.

Childhood” by Margaret Walker (1942)

A contemporary of Brooks and one of the leading figures in Chicago’s Black Renaissance, Walker, a transplanted Southerner, here presents a far different picture of childhood. She remembers as a child the impoverished conditions of her Deep South world during the Depression before her family migrated to Chicago, an apocalyptic world of “famine, terror, flood, and plague.

Related Titles

By Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi...

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Cynthia in the Snow

Gwendolyn Brooks

Cynthia in the Snow

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Speech to the Young

Gwendolyn Brooks

Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks