Selected Poems Paperback – July 3, 2006

I bought this book for a professor of history She loves poetry and was very interested in a female author and a person of color. She has enjoyed the writing and shares the poetry with her daughter

My daughter had a black history project on Gwendolyn Brooks, and this book of poems were perfect.

A fine and accessible collection of poems that capture its time period and themes effectively. These poems are not for the faint of heart and will require some digging to fully enjoy but for what they are, Brooks is a genius. If you can't read them all please do read Sadie and Maud.

I suspected I was going to love Gwendolyn Brooks, which is why I got this book. I'm very happy to have that suspicion confirmed. What's sad is that her poetry is represented almost solely by two poems which, compared to her other work, are unimpressive. When you read "We Real Cool" or "The Bean Eaters" do you get the impression that Brooks is a cross between William Blake and Emily Dickinson, or that she wrote multiple prufrocks (though she couldn't quite bring herself to Eliot's level of dissonance)? At times I also hear Hopkins breaking out of her poems. There's a marvelous, but often pointed, richness throughout this book. Not only will I keep this volume, which is a reproduction of her Pulitzer prize-winning book, but will also seek out more of it to see if she sustained this level of artistry. The following are some more illustrative examples of her style than one sees in anthologies. This book has poems grouped according to the books they first appeared in. The first two excerpts I'll share originally appeared in the book Annie Allen. The first is the first two stanzas from the poem "The Anniad."Think of sweet and chocolate,Left to folly and to fate,Whom the higher gods forgot,Whom the lower gods berate;Physical and underfedFancying on the featherbedWhat is never and is not.What is ever and is not.Pretty tatters blue and red,Buxom berries beyond rot,Western clouds and quarter-stars,Fairy-sweet of old guitarsLittering the little headLight upon the featherbed.This poem moves on to less innocent themes in which the "think of sweet and chocolate" is repeated to ironic effect.The next excerpt is the third sonnet from "The Womanhood" from the book Annie Allen. The poem has fifteen sections. This first section is titled Children of the Poor. Although she has some long poems, they're not difficult reading because she either establishes a foward-moving rhythm or the individual parts are intriguing enough to stand on their own. I think this sonnet supports that point.And shall I prime my children, pray, to pray?Mites, come invade most frugal vestibulesSpectered with crusts of penitents' renewalsAnd all hysterics arrogant for a day.Instruct yourselves here is no devil to pay.Children, confine your lights in jellied rules;Resemble graves; by metaphysical mules;Learn Lord will not distort nor leave the fray.Behind the scurryings of your neat motifI shall wait, if you wish: revise the psalmIf that should frighten you: sew up beliefIf that should tear: turn, singularly calmAt forehead and at fingers rather wise,Holding the bandage ready for your eyes.The last excerpt comes from the New Poems section. "New" in this collection would have been 1963. The title is "Riders of the Blood-red Wrath."My proper prudence toward his proper probeAstonished their ancestral seemliness.It was a not-nice risk, a wrought risk, wasAn indelicate risk, they thought. And an excess,Howas I handled my discordancesand prides and apoplectic ice, howasI reined my charger, channeled the unfit fumeOf his most splendid honorable jazzEscaped the closing and averted sightWaiving all witness except of rotted flowersFramed in maimed velvet. That mad demi-artOf ancient and irrevocable hours.Waiving all witness except dimnessesFrom which extrude beloved and pennant armsOf a renegade death impatient at his shrineAnd keen to share the gases of his charms.They veer to vintage. Careening from tomorrows.Blaring away from my just genesis.They loot Last Night. They hug old graves, root upDecomposition, warm it with a kiss.That's the first, and longest, stanza of the poem. I think I could spend a year unraveling all of the power and import of that one stanza. I can't say that I have quoted my favorite poems of this volume because so many of them were fascinating that I couldn't have easily claimed favorites. There were only a few that disappointed. There's a feel with her poems that she has swallowed all of English literary history and is capable of pulling out whatever she wants to use at the moment. She's a truly awesome poet and it's a shame she isn't more widely read and appreciated. I wish I had learned of her full scope much, much earlier.

Love it!

This is fine anthology. Unfortunately it doesn't include her later work. But the poetry is so compelling that I purchased another anthology that does have later work.

I gave this book to an18 year old poet and she memorized several of the poems immediately. She loved the book and is interested in buying another collection by Brooks

Some of the poems were difficult to comprehend and may require a re-reading to understand their full meaning. But that is the brilliance of G. Brooks, putting you in places of the mind that one has never been. Won’t recommend for newbies!