Gwendolyn Brooks is the author of the lyric poem “The Crazy Woman.” The poem, published in her book of poetry, The Bean Eaters (1960), is about a woman who sings a sad song instead of a joyous song. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s impacts the poem and Brooks’s career. Brooks read authors affiliated with this creative period, and these earlier Black writers helped build Brooks a platform so that she and the speaker of her poem could express themselves freely.  The central message of “The Crazy Woman” is that it is not absurd to give voice to the terrible aspects of life, even if a fair amount of people would rather hear about only happy experiences.

Brooks’s willingness to tackle the unsettling and upsetting parts of life appears in her other poems. In her most famous poem, “We Real Cool” (1960), Brooks deals with the dire consequences of heedlessly rebellious young people. In one of her more controversial poems, “the mother” (1945), Brooks addresses the issue of abortion. As the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize, Brooks has a deep and varied canon. She has published around 20 books—poetry for adults, poems for children, two autobiographies, and a novel. “The Crazy Woman” is not one of Brooks’s most famous poems, but it demonstrates her dedication to individuality, her signature mix of taught and melodious language, and her nimble ability to address historically marginalized groups in a universal language without fetishizing them.

Poet Biography

Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas to Keziah Wims Brooks, a school teacher and David Brooks, a janitor. After she was born, the family moved back to Chicago and Brooks grew up in a neighborhood nicknamed “Bronzeville” since most of the people living there were Black. Her parents created an artistic and literary environment, filling the house with singing and books, and encouraged her poetry.

Brooks wasted little time in launching her literary career. At 11, she published four poems in a local newspaper, the Hyde Parker. Two years later, she published a poem in the national magazine, American Childhood. Later in her teens, she met Langston Hughes, the well-known poet affiliated with the Harlem Renaissance—a New York City-based movement composed of Black artists and writers who wrote proudly and unapologetically about their experiences. Hughes encouraged her writing, telling her she would someday publish a book.

During the Great Depression, Brooks helped her family by working odd jobs, but in 1937, Brooks joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council. She married another writer, Henry Blakely, and, in 1940, they had a son, Henry. The marriage was far from perfect, as the couple later separated near the end of 1969. Brooks enjoyed her freedom and independence, although she and Henry eventually reunited.

In 1941, Brooks attended a poetry workshop led by a wealthy white woman, Inez Cunningham. A reader for the influential Poetry magazine, Cunningham opened many doors for Brooks. In 1945, Harper & Row published her first book of poems, A Street in Bronzeville, and she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry in 1946. In 1949, Harper & Row published her poetry collection Annie Allen, which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. With this achievement, Brooks became the first Black person to take home the prestigious honor.

She started to review books for the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, and in September 1951, her daughter Nora was born. Two years later, she published her episodic novel, Maud Martha (1953), followed by a collection of poems for children, Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956). In the 1960s, she became acquainted with writers connected to the Black Arts Movement —Amiri Baraka, and Ron Milner, among them. Like the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement encouraged Black writers to uncompromisingly assert their identity and voice. Around this time, Brooks started a poetry workshop in Chicago for young people, which included members of the Chicago gang, the Blackstone Rangers.

Galvanized by the Black Arts Movement, Brooks left Harper & Row and started publishing with the Black-owned Broadside Press. The company published several books by Brooks, including the poetry collection Family Pictures (1970) and each of her autobiographies. In 1976, Brooks became the first Black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts gave her a lifetime achievement award. On December 3, 2000, Brooks died at her Chicago home at age 83.

Poem Text

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Crazy Woman.” 1960. All Poetry.

Summary

The title of Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem hints towards the poem’s subject. Indeed, “The Crazy Woman” is about a woman considered crazy by other people.

In the first stanza, the speaker—the crazy woman—says she will not “sing a May song” (Line 1) since such a song “should be gay” (Line 2) or happy and joyous. Instead, the woman will wait until November because then she can “sing a song of gray” (Line 4) or a song that is somber and gloomy.

The woman does not mind waiting until November to sing her song. She says, “That is the time for me” (Line 6). November is a part of the year she likes. When the cold, gray weather arrives, the woman will “go out in the frosty dark / And sing most terribly” (Lines 7-8). Outside in the chilly nighttime, the woman will sing her song about unpleasant things.

The speaker is aware that her dour song will make others look at her and pass judgement. However, the speaker does not think much of these people’s opinions, calling them “little people” (Line 9). She is sure these inferior people “will stare” (Line 10) at her and remark, “That is the Crazy Woman / Who would not sing in May” (Line 12) because she would rather sing a horrible song than a happy song.