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POETRY
UNZIPPED>>
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Page 2
Drawing Conclusions
The Big Question
To unzip poetry:
THIS MONTH OUR TEEN UNZIPPER, ANSHU GUPTA,
EXPLAINS WHY SHE GROOVES ON THIS GWENDOLYN
BROOKS POEM.
TRUTH OF A POEM
>> TO REVEAL THE
>> TO ANALYZE A
POEM’S MEANING
>> TO CLARIFY THE FORM
BEHIND THE WORDS
the sonnet-ballad
BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover’s tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won’t be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate—and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes.”
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
“THE SONNET-BALLAD” FROM “APPENDIX TO THE ANNIAD: LEAVES FROM A
LOOSE-LEAF WAR DIARY” IN ANNIE ALLEN BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS, PUBLISHED BY HARPER. © 1949 BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS.
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ABOUT
GWENDOLYN
BROOKS
ANSHU GUPTA UNZIPS “THE SONNET-BALLAD”
BORN
June 7, 1917
Topeka, Kan.
DIED
December 3,
2000, Chicago,
Ill.
EDUCATION
Wilson Junior
College,
Chicago
BIG
AWARD
Pulitzer
Prize in Poetry
HER CROWD
In the 1930s,
Brooks hung out
with Langston
Hughes. In the
1960s, she
became active
in the
Black Arts
movement
in Chicago.
I love this poem because everything about it is beautiful, yet
it represents sad events. In the first line, the speaker is full
of anguish because her lover was taken away. It is an angry
poem that touches so many issues: war, love, individuality,
and the quest for happiness. Brooks writes in trochaic pentameter, with 10 syllables in each line. The trochees
have calm beginnings and
ANSHU GUPTA
harsh endings. They coinCARY ACADEMY
cide with the poem’s
DURHAM, NORTH
theme: In the past the
CAROLINA
speaker experienced love
AGE: 15
that was calm and gentle,
but it was cut short by war, which is hard, rough, and
stressful. Brooks paints an image with each word she uses
and allows the reader to experience the scene for herself.
She ends the poem with a question that keeps the reader
thinking. This poem is beautiful because it does not tell us
how to interpret it or even what it is about. It just leaves us
to wonder, “Where is the happiness?”
Unzipped: Your Turn
>> IN WHAT SENSE WILL THE SPEAKER’S
LOVER “HAVE TO BE UNTRUE”?
LEFT PAGE: ©AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS; LEFT PAGE: HUGHES: ©CORBIS;
PULITZER: COURTESY OF THE PULITZER PRIZES
>> WHAT CHANGE DOES THE SPEAKER FEAR?
≠≠≠
>> HOW DOES THE RHYME SCHEME AFFECT THE
SOUND AND MEANING OF THE POEM?
>> WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF REPEATING THE
OPENING QUESTION AT THE END OF THE POEM?
SEND US the title
and author of
your favorite
poem, and tell us
why you love it.
What is it about
the poem that
speaks to you?
What’s your
favorite image?
How does it relate
to you and your
life? Send your
response to
[email protected].
Literary Cavalcade OCTOBER 2004
35