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A review by pangnaolin
Selected Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Brooks has an absolutely beautiful voice that definitely isn't easy to grasp at. From what I understood, this collection largely touches on war fatigue, racism, womanhood, and class, but also dives into more personal (and occasionally religious) themes.
It took me many reads to get at some of the meanings within her pieces, and some of them I gave up on really understanding-- either out of difficulty or, to be honest, out of boredom. To be clear, I don't think that second part is her fault; her poetry is absolutely beautiful, but some pieces just weren't my style and felt hard to connect with, so I read through them knowing I probably wouldn't get them.
That said, almost every poem had a line to a stanza at least that hit hard and I really adored, which is why this is one of the only books I've ever annotated without having to force it to happen. My favorite poems from the collection were kitchenette building, the mother, the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon, Negro Hero, Strong Men, Riding Horses [one poem], A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon., and The Lovers of the Poor.
To be honest, the collection just wasn't one of my favorites! I would still definitely recommend it, though, depending on the type of poetry that you like. I also think that it's an important read just in understanding the Harlem Renaissance and her place among it-- building that map of Black innovation in literature. I'd say that I'm really glad I read the collection, regardless of how much I enjoyed individual poems.
It took me many reads to get at some of the meanings within her pieces, and some of them I gave up on really understanding-- either out of difficulty or, to be honest, out of boredom. To be clear, I don't think that second part is her fault; her poetry is absolutely beautiful, but some pieces just weren't my style and felt hard to connect with, so I read through them knowing I probably wouldn't get them.
That said, almost every poem had a line to a stanza at least that hit hard and I really adored, which is why this is one of the only books I've ever annotated without having to force it to happen. My favorite poems from the collection were kitchenette building, the mother, the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon, Negro Hero, Strong Men, Riding Horses [one poem], A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon., and The Lovers of the Poor.
To be honest, the collection just wasn't one of my favorites! I would still definitely recommend it, though, depending on the type of poetry that you like. I also think that it's an important read just in understanding the Harlem Renaissance and her place among it-- building that map of Black innovation in literature. I'd say that I'm really glad I read the collection, regardless of how much I enjoyed individual poems.