Questions to consider:
- How are Brooks's poems politically conscious? What effect does this have on you as the reader, and do you think this was intentional?
- What effect do the line breaks have on "We Real Cool"?
- What are the similarities and differences between Brooks and Langston Hugues? Defend your answer.
The Mother
Abortions will not let you forget.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come.
You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh,
Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.
I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed
children.
I have contracted. I have eased
My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck.
I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized
Your luck
And your lives from your unfinished reach,
If I stole your births and your names,
Your straight baby tears and your games,
Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,
and your deaths,
If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,
Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.
Though why should I whine,
Whine that the crime was other than mine?--
Since anyhow you are dead.
Or rather, or instead,
You were never made.
But that too, I am afraid,
Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?
You were born, you had body, you died.
It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.
Believe me, I loved you all.
Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you
All.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come.
You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh,
Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.
I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed
children.
I have contracted. I have eased
My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck.
I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized
Your luck
And your lives from your unfinished reach,
If I stole your births and your names,
Your straight baby tears and your games,
Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches,
and your deaths,
If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths,
Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.
Though why should I whine,
Whine that the crime was other than mine?--
Since anyhow you are dead.
Or rather, or instead,
You were never made.
But that too, I am afraid,
Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?
You were born, you had body, you died.
It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.
Believe me, I loved you all.
Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you
All.
We Real Cool
We real cool. We
Left School. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Left School. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
She aborts her child. And that you should never kill a baby that didn’t even ask to be born into this world. For what to be killed before they can even see the sun light or look into their mothers eyes. The poem is very well put together and the poetic who wrote the poem clearly gets his/her point across without having to try to very hard. When you have an abortion it can be very traumatizing and hard to get over. That’s why I think if you’re smart or dumb enough to lay down and have sex. You are smart enough to take responsibilities for your actions.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem the narrator talks sbout her aboortion and how it haunts and frightens her. She is also saying abortions are the worse things possible because you're killing a precious human being that didnt asked to be put in this world. I agree with her a 100%. If you know that you arent able to provide for a child why have unprotected sex knowing thre's a possibilty of getting pregnant. There's so many methods of preventing unwanted pregnacies so why not take advantage of the methods that are given to you. A human being should not suffer because of the neglegence and irresponsibilty of another person. So before you lay down with somebody and have unprotected sex, ask your self, Am i ready for a child? Am i Financially stable to provide for my child? Am i going to give my child the best life poosible?
ReplyDeleteDestiny Dandridge
Brooks' poems are politically conscious because they make you think and look at things differently. They show you the outcomes of things. For example, in "We Real Cool" she discusses and shows you the results of leaving school or dropping out. The line breaks represent the lack of education of the people being discussed in the poem. In the poem "The Mother" Brooks portrays the emotional abuse that comes from having an abortion. I think the effect was intentional because Brooks is trying to show you that if you get an abortion you’ll have to live with the permanent mental and emotional stress that comes along with it.
ReplyDelete*DeShanti
-The Mother
ReplyDeletein the mother the author is stating how unforgetable it is when you abort your child. even though the child is aborted it remains in the mothers thoughts. even with the child being aborted the mother still cares about it and feels for the unborn child and loved the child. when you have an abortion it could be hard to get over the fact that you let go your own child go and it will remain in your mind and heart forever. you may feel guilty about letting go of a precious baby , a living one , yet one who didnt get to see the world and breath its own air. a baby is a precious gift from god that should be cherished by the mother which concieved it and not aborted. the mother may have been scared of the idea of a baby but aborting it will not give you a chance to face fear of it only the chance to face gulit and pain.
[Rickyma Cary]
Destiny, I completely agree with you. There are many ways to prevent pregnancies and a person who is sexually active should take those precautions. However, Alot of people don't. Some people, mostly teens, are ashamed or afraid to tell their parents that they are sexually active. Therefore they go out and have sex using a condom, which is not 100%. While those teens are out at least attepting to stay in the clear there are still teens who feel that they are "in love" and will do anything for their boyfriend/girlfriend and when they say they don't like condoms and they'll "pull out" those teens think, okay what are the odds I'll catch something or I'll get pregnant. Maybe they are ignorant to the sexual education thing or maybe they just don't care, but i believe that abortions are bad, so therefore, I agree with you.
ReplyDelete-Kendra Henderson
@Destiny
ReplyDeletewhy would you talk about sex when the theme of the poem is abortion?
you spend a whole paragraph talking about sex and methods to prevent pregnancy (which has nothing to do with the poem by the way) when yous should have been focusing on responding and analyzing the meaning of the poem, or trying to answer one of the questions provided.
Mother
ReplyDeleteDestiny, Mother is showing how abortions are something that sticks with you for the rest of your life. How the child is actually alive but is just now out in the world to play or run or even cry. That you stopped a life before it could ever have a chance. She was ready to be a mother or it could have been a mistake, but she had to make the right choice for her. She loved the unborn child just how a mother should or would but her love wasn’t enough to take of the child. Saying I love you to the unborn the mother is trying to show that even though she killed the baby are doesn’t mean she didn’t love the baby.Not about sex.
Shaquia Anderson
@Destiny & Rickyma: I also felt that this poem was very meaningful. I’m still not sure whether or not Brook’s intention was to persuade her readers or not. She does use emotional appeal to connect to her readers; however, it is possible that the speaker of the poem is expressing her guilt and sadness, but not necessarily trying to persuade people to not perform abortions. I am unsure of her political view since she does not propose a direct solution to the problem.
ReplyDelete@DeShanti: I also believe that Brooks is writing about some bad eggs in “We Read Cool.” They think they are so cool, but the reality is that they are making a huge mistake, and Brooks wants the readers to learn from this. I also enjoy the irony in this poem—that the speakers of the poem are the kids who are bad. They talk about their downfall, but obviously do not realize the significance of it enough