Selected poems

by Gwendolyn Brooks

Paper Book, 1963

Status

Checked out

Publication

New York: Harper & Row [1963]

Description

Contains a selection of poems from three earlier books: "A Street in Bronzeville," "Annie Allen," and "The Bean Eaters" as well as some new selections.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Crystalee
Brooks' poems are deep, complicated, sometimes hard to understand, but heart-warming, funny and moving. Everyone will like SOMETHING about this collection.
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
I didn't particularly enjoy this collection. I've been teaching "We Real Cool" for years, and I never get tired of it, so I looked forward to a larger sampling of Brooks' work, but I don't really think there is anything here I'll come back to. Undeniably, Brooks knows words and sound, but this
Show More
honestly came down to feeling like a poet's playtime to me. It seemed heavy on experimentation with sound and very quick scenes, and light on meaning. For someone who is just starting to play with the sound of poetry and explore it's uses, away from the traditional and expected rhymes and rhythms, I could recommend this, but for me---well, I was often bored, and rarely satisfied or drawn into the poems themselves.
Show Less
LibraryThing member AlanWPowers
Gwendolyn Brooks should have been our Inaugural poet, if Clinton valued literature more, politics less. There's little comparison between her poetry and her sophomoric colleagues'. "We real cool. We" alone stands as a prosodic and vocal breakthrough in American letters, the voice of the street in
Show More
spondees, with the line-end punctuating the street pause. Wonderful, and enlightening. Nobody knew you could capture the
street in a brief lyric until she did. Rappers would do well to master Brooks' spondees here.
But that's just the beginning of her accomplishment, as this selection shows.
As for inaugural poets, no politician since JFK had the political smarts to appoint an opponent--a lifelong Republican--to the post, perhaps because Frost's fame did not deter from the Office of President. Now no one poet dominates like that, though Billy Collins is close. And Gwendolyn Brooks made up in skill what she lacked in fame.
Show Less

Awards

Language

Physical description

x, 127 p.; 22 cm
Page: 0.3106 seconds