Sadie and Maud Maud went to college. Sadie stayed home. Sadie scraped life With a fine toothed comb. She didn't leave a tangle in Her comb found every strand. Sadie was one of the livingest chicks In all the land. Sadie bore two babies Under her maiden name. Maud and Ma and Papa Nearly died of shame. When Sadie said her last so-long Her girls struck out from home. (Sadie left as heritage Her fine-toothed comb.) Maud, who went to college, Is a thin brown mouse. She is living all alone In this old house. Ms. Brooks continues to show her artistic ability with the poem, Sadie and Maud. In this poem, Ms. Brooks presents multiple devices regarding the subject.
Within stanza 1, we noticed that Ms. Brooks continues with her normal rhyme scheme “abcb”. This rhyme scheme enhances the originality of the poem, indicating that the poem belongs to Ms. Brooks. In addition to that we see the first indication of alliteration. Alliteration, in this poem, was to describe Sadie. There was only one time in in which alliteration was used for other than describing Sadie and her actions, and it happened in Stanza 3. Within stanza 3, we continue to see the same rhyme scheme; however, we come upon a new device. The stanza starts off with an alliteration to help enforce the description of Sadie, but within line 11 we come upon another form of alliteration. This time the alliteration is used to enhance the description of Sadie's family. In addition to this, there was an example of internal rhyme and assonances within the same line. The assonances that are present within the poem are important because they are used to describe Maud and her actions. The last two stanzas continue to use alliteration and assonance for their purpose within the poem. Stanza 4 is used to describe and talk about the current state of Sadie, and this stanza consisted of an alliteration to help describe Sadie. Stanza 5 is used to talk about and describe Maud's current state. In order for the author to do that, the author used assonance in order to enhance the description of Maud's current state. The poet purposely used assonance to enhance Maud's description and used alliteration to enhance Maud's description. The purpose was to make the distinction between Maud and Sadie even more distinct even though they are sisters. Assonance and Alliteration are similar to each other; however, they are very different. In regards to sound, Assonance and Alliteration involves the vowel letter while alliteration involves the consonant letter. In terms of the poem, Maud does not have a life while Sadie does. This is the correlation that the author is trying to show us, using sound and its purpose to effectively structure the poem.
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The Crazy Woman I shall not sing a May song. A May song should be gay. I'll wait until November And sing a song of gray. I'll wait until November That is the time for me. I'll go out in the frosty dark And sing most terribly. And all the little people Will stare at me and say, "That is the Crazy Woman Who would not sing in May." Within this poem, The Crazy Woman, Ms. Brooks continues to display her artistic abilities within language and ambiguity.
The first example of this begins within line 1 as she uses “May” in another way other than being the fifth month of the year. She uses May as meaning happy/uplifting/hopeful, in regards to it being the month before summer. This explains the reason to why she said that a “May” song should be gay, or in other words should be bright and/or happy. Within the same stanza, there is another instance where a month is used to have more than one meaning and in this case, it is the month November. November is the month before winter; therefore, it is portrayed to be a month of upcoming sadness. The only type of song that would be appropriate for this instance would be a “gray” song, not regarding to color, but to a sad mood. The next stanza presents the positive aspect of “singing” during the dark time of the year. The speaker states, “That is the time for me” and this shows that she have a different viewpoint about how seasons treat people. She feels more free and relaxed during November, even though that mood is portrayed to set a gloomy mood. She continues saying, “I'll go out in the frosty dark and sing most terribly” and by this she implies that in November you do not have to be perfect with all smiles, you can sing the way you want to without rules or unity. The last stanza shows how the word “crazy” is used in the world today. The “little people” call the woman crazy as meaning to be weird, different, and awkward, out of place. However, within this whole poem we can see that there is no such thing as being out of place. Ms. Brooks do not want us to care about how we are described by other people. Be yourself and do not be like the crowd. That is why we can say that the tone of the poem is proud; she accepts the fact that she is called the “Crazy Woman” because she was being herself. A Sunset of the City Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love. My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls, Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite And night is night. It is a real chill out, The genuine thing. I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer Because sun stays and birds continue to sing. It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone. The sweet flowers indrying and dying down, The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown. It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes I am aware there is winter to heed. There is no warm house That is fitted with my need. I am cold in this cold house this house Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls. I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs. I am a woman who hurries through her prayers. Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my Desert and my dear relief Come: there shall be such islanding from grief, And small communion with the master shore. Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin, Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry In humming pallor or to leap and die. Somebody muffed it?? Somebody wanted to joke. After reading, A Sunset of The City, it has opened my eyes to a lot , specifically the message of the poem. However, in order for her to accomplish that task she had to establish a sophisticated for of language. To start off, I realized that there were a couple of figurative languages devices, such as personification and hyperbole, just by skimming the poem. However, in order to fully understand the poem, skimming would not work alone; The investigation of is required to understand the poem.
In Lines 1-2, she uses hyperbole and within the hyperbole she was able to cultivate the idea that her family, even her kids, did not care about her, without actually stating it. Also, within Line 3, she uses the word "or" and this implements the idea that in her poem, pleasant and polite are not synonyms, even though they can be interrelated. This is a prime example of ambiguity being present. She doesn't use the most common definition of pleasant, she uses the next meaning for it, and instead of comparing it to its synonym, she uses it in order to contrast. The first line of the next stanza states that "it was a real chill out", but normally people would say "it was chilly out", so what was Ms. Brooks intention in doing so? Let's define the noun (important word) of the line, "chill". The noun definition of chill is a depressing influence; therefore, she felt like she is in a depressing atmosphere. With this piece of evidence you can see that there is a lonely/depressing tone within the poem. If we continue we can see this tone to be even more evident. Within the stanza where she says, "I do not think it is still summer", she makes it known that life is not what it seems. She even states a contradicting thing in the next line saying, "Because sun stays and birds continue to sing", the two signs of summer. However, the real meaning of that is that the "sun" and the "birds" are not free to move on, but instead they have to portray themselves to be happy. She even let us know that the "grasses" couldn't bare it and forget their "blaze", so they are consenting to brown. Along with this line she used personification in order to enhance the support. This support led her to the conclusion that it is summer-gone, instead of summer because of its dullness/lack of vividness. She does not just stop there, she continues on with this vivid language. For instance, the word "cold" is not referred to the weather in this instance, but instead it is referred as being depressing or dispiriting, the tone and mood of the passage. To support this she writes, "There is no warm house, That is fitted with my need" and this shows a sign of submitting to the society's ways. Since the world is cold, she might as well be cold too, see the ambiguity. In addition to that, she display vivid description Ms. Brooks wanted the audience to know that within this world people would not be able to be understood clearly. In similarity, the speaker knows that this is not right and wants to get to bed because it would not be as cold in her mind. To end this poem, she set up a scenario where she and an unknown person will converse and the last stanza is set up to be the after math of the conversation. This last stanza portrays a more serious/degrading tone, unlike the other stanza, which led to the mood/tone of this stanza. This shows that she was serious about what she was saying in lines 23-24, but the person that she was talking to thought that it was a joke. This allows us to think about how bad the world is around us and the effect of the "bad world". She wants us to not submit to the effect, but be yourself. To Be In Love To be in love Is to touch with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well. You look at things Through his eyes. A cardinal is red. A sky is blue. Suddenly you know he knows too. He is not there but You know you are tasting together The winter, or a light spring weather. His hand to take your hand is overmuch. Too much to bear. You cannot look in his eyes Because your pulse must not say What must not be said. When he Shuts a door- Is not there_ Your arms are water. And you are free With a ghastly freedom. You are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt. You remember and covet his mouth To touch, to whisper on. Oh when to declare Is certain Death! Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize, To see fall down, the Column of Gold, Into the commonest ash. To be in Love by Gwendolyn Brooks is simply what the title says, how it feels when someone falls in love, the positive and negative. The speaker of this can be implied to be no other than Mrs. Brooks or a young woman. Within this poem, the speaker is giving their experience of being in love, how it feels to be in love, and how it feels when the one you are in love with leaves you. As a result, the tone of this poem is perceived to be in a sense of fondness and affection (to be fond of and affectionate). The speaker talks vividly about how she feels about her lover; for instance, she says, “He is not there but you know you are tasting together the winter, or a light spring weather.” She is telling us that this affection has allow her to be one with her lover, mentally and emotionally. In addition to this, the author tells how it feel when their lover leaves them, "His hand to take your hand is overmuch. Too much to bear." So, it is appropriate to say that the theme is that love is such a wonderful and powerful thing to possess. It is powerful because with love, we will be able to grow as a person and that will lead in us being a better person. "In yourself you stretch, you are well." However, Mrs. Brooks only makes the theme present to the reader if the reader comprehends the poem line to line.
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