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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 mother” is a deeply introspective poem driven by the speaker’s internal reckoning. The shape of the poem follows the stream of consciousness of a would-be mother attempting to make sense of the emotional fallout of several abortions. The paradox of having and not-having these children is introduced in the second line: “You remember the children you got that you did not get” (Line 2). The use of the second-person pronoun “you” throughout the first stanza creates an imagined dialogue between the speaker and herself. This address creates distance between the speaker and herself at the beginning of the poem, allowing her a somewhat more objective way into the difficult topic at hand. She states the truth of her situation simply, as if she were an observer. The simple fact is that these children would never work, never be married, never laugh or cry or suck their thumbs. Still, this objectivity only lasts for so long. By the last couplet, the speaker’s descriptions betray a consuming love for the children with her use of food-adjacent language: “luscious sigh…a snack of them…gobbling mother-eye” (Lines 9-10).
By Gwendolyn Brooks
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi...
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon
Gwendolyn Brooks
A Sunset of the City
A Sunset of the City
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 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