1.
the mother
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Presentation by Nicole Calais

2.
About The Poetess
• Born June 17, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Died December 3, 2000
in Chicago, Illinois.
• Wrote about the everyday lives of the urban black community
• She was the author of more than twenty books of poetry
• In her early career her poems had a more technical form and
sophisticated word play - more intellectual and scholarly -
focusing on oppression.
• Her poetic format and style changed as she became more
politically aware.

3.
Gwendolyn Brooks Achievements
• By 1934 Brooks was a part of the Chicago Defender staff and
published almost one hundred of her poems in a weekly column.
• In 1950 she was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer
Prize
• President John Kennedy invited her to read at a Library of
Congress poetry festival in 1962
• In 1968 she was named the Poet Laureate of Illinois
• In 1985 she was the first black woman appointed as a consultant
(Poet Laureate) in poetry to the Library of Congress

4.
the mother
Gwendolyn Brooks
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.

5.
Speaker
• A woman, possibly a mother
“Abortions will not let you forget/ You remember the children you got that you did not get.” (lines 1-2)
“Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye.” (line 10)
• Speaker uses “I” and “my” and talks about abortion
“I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children.” (line 11)
• As far as tone, in this poem it is mostly apologetic, yet hopeful.
• Speaker expresses guilt and remorse for their actions

6.
Themes
• Mourning – there is obviously some guilt
“why should I whine?/ Whine that the crime was other than mine?--/ since anyhow you are dead.” (lines 22-
24)
• Forgiveness – the speaker talks about all the milestones the “child” will not have
“if I sinned, if I seized/ your luck (lines 14-15)
“If I stole your births…If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths” (lines 17-20)
• Regret - the speaker tries to justify their actions
“…even in my deliberateness, I was not deliberate.” (line 21)

7.
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.
A
A
B
B
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
G
H
G
H
I
J
J
K
K
L
M
M
N
N
O
O
P
Q
Q
R
S
R
Irony - distance between what is said and what
is meant
Metaphor - An implied comparison
Anaphora – repetition of words or phrases
Personification – giving human abilities to an
inanimate object
Apostrophe – addressing a nonexistent person
or an inanimate object
Figures of Speech
No euphemisms for “death” or “abortion”

8.
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.
A
A
B
B
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
G
H
G
H
I
J
J
K
K
L
M
M
N
N
O
O
P
Q
Q
R
S
R
Sounds
Assonance – repetition of vowel
sounds without repeating
consonants
Alliteration – repetition of consonant
sounds in a series of words
Rhyme – repetition of syllables
• Lack of conjunctions
• Free verse, partial couplet rhyme
scheme
• Song-like sound in the first
stanza

9.
Poetic Form
• The poem is written in free verse
• No regular meter, but there are many soft syllables in the poem. The stronger words contain the stressed syllables
“Since anyhow you are dead” - soft, stress/soft/soft, soft, soft, stress (line 24)
“You were never made” - soft, soft, soft/ stress, soft (line 26)
“…my dim killed children.” – soft. stress, stress, soft/stress (Line 11)
• The rhythm of the poem is evocative of a song
• Breaking the rhyme scheme correlates to speakers’ change in emotions
• The stanzas are different lengths

10.
Bibliography
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/life.htm
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/gwendolyn-brooks
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/gwendolyn-brooks
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gwendolyn-brooks
https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-
mother.html#.XLtdF-hKjZs