Black Power!!!
The Black Arts Movement, abbreviated BAM, was often referred to as the "Artistic sister of the Black Power Movement", and is considered one of the most important times in African-American literature. It was started in Harlem by writer/activist Everette LeRoi Jones. It started in the year of 1965 and ended around 1976. The movement was specifically aimed for African-Americans to break away from the dominating American culture, so the poetry style varied, but the overall message stayed the same. Famous Poets: LeRoi Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, & Nikki Giovanni.
Breakdown..
I Took this poem as her rather living through the bad things to gain the experience rather than being sheltered all the time. First, I looked at the first stanza
"I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose." I thought that she was implying that she is tired of only seeing the good in life, and wants people to pay attention to the negative aspects in life, possibly hoping for a change. I also saw that in the title. The front yard of a home is usually well kept, and crisp, because that is what most people will notice when they see the home. And most backyards are not as well kept as the front, because the only person who will see it is the owner. I feel as if the poet took those aspects and wrote a poem that's focuses on the backyard, which is a metaphor for the negative aspects of life that are buried and not usually focused on.
"I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose." I thought that she was implying that she is tired of only seeing the good in life, and wants people to pay attention to the negative aspects in life, possibly hoping for a change. I also saw that in the title. The front yard of a home is usually well kept, and crisp, because that is what most people will notice when they see the home. And most backyards are not as well kept as the front, because the only person who will see it is the owner. I feel as if the poet took those aspects and wrote a poem that's focuses on the backyard, which is a metaphor for the negative aspects of life that are buried and not usually focused on.
Literary Devices
"I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose" - I kind of took this stanza as a analogy. Like I said in the breakdown, I felt as if she used the front yard as positive aspects, and The backyard as the negative aspects.
Also, I believe the 3rd line of the stanza above is personification. She gave hungry, which is a human quality, to the plants in the backyard. The reason she did this is to support the main points of the poem. The reason that the plants are "hungry" is because they are also untended to, and the reason that they are untended to is because they are not really focused on, and the reason for that is because they are in the backyard.
Gwendolyn Brooks Also uses an assonance based rhyme scheme throughout the majority of the poem. Almost every pair of lines uses the same vowel sound towards the end of the line so they can rhyme.
EXAMPLE: "But I say it’s fine. Honest, I do.
And I’d like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with paint on my face."
Finally, I feel like there are some idioms within the stanza above. For example, in the last line, she doesn't literally mean that she will walk down the street with actual paint on her face. I believe that the phrase really means that she will become a soldier of some sorts. I got that from her saying that she would like to become a bad woman(another idiom), which basically means that she would like to become an extraordinary woman. The paint represents the "war" she goes on trying to bring light to the negatives.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose" - I kind of took this stanza as a analogy. Like I said in the breakdown, I felt as if she used the front yard as positive aspects, and The backyard as the negative aspects.
Also, I believe the 3rd line of the stanza above is personification. She gave hungry, which is a human quality, to the plants in the backyard. The reason she did this is to support the main points of the poem. The reason that the plants are "hungry" is because they are also untended to, and the reason that they are untended to is because they are not really focused on, and the reason for that is because they are in the backyard.
Gwendolyn Brooks Also uses an assonance based rhyme scheme throughout the majority of the poem. Almost every pair of lines uses the same vowel sound towards the end of the line so they can rhyme.
EXAMPLE: "But I say it’s fine. Honest, I do.
And I’d like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with paint on my face."
Finally, I feel like there are some idioms within the stanza above. For example, in the last line, she doesn't literally mean that she will walk down the street with actual paint on her face. I believe that the phrase really means that she will become a soldier of some sorts. I got that from her saying that she would like to become a bad woman(another idiom), which basically means that she would like to become an extraordinary woman. The paint represents the "war" she goes on trying to bring light to the negatives.