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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WALL, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A drumdrumdrum. Last Line: And we sing | |||
A drumdrumdrum. Humbly we come. South of success and east of gloss and glass are sandals; flowercloth; grave hoops of wood or gold, pendant from black ears, brown ears, reddish-brown and ivory ears; black boy-men. Black boy-men on roofs fist out "Black Power!" Val, a little black stampede in African images of brass and flowerswirl, fist out "Black Power!"--tightens pretty eyes, leans back on mothercountry and is tract, is treatise through her perfect and tight teeth. Women in wool hair chant their poetry. Phil Cohran gives us messages and music made of developed bone and polished and honed cult. It is the Hour of tribe and of vibration, the day-long Hour. It is the Hour of ringing, rouse, of ferment-festival. On Forty-third and Langley black furnaces resent ancient legislatures of ploy and scruple and practical gelatin. They keep the fever in, fondle the fever. All worship the Wall. I mount the rattling wood. Walter says, "She is good." Says, "She our Sister is." In front of me hundreds of faces, red-brown, brown, black, ivory, yield me hot trust, their yea and their Announcement that they are ready to rile the high-flung ground. Behind me. Paint. Heroes. No child has defiled the Heroes of this Wall this serious Appointment this still Wing this Scald this Flute this heavy Light this Hinge. An emphasis is paroled. The old decapitations are revised, the dispossessions beakless. And we sing. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HUNCHBACK GIRL: SHE THINKS OF HEAVEN by GWENDOLYN BROOKS MEDGAR EVERS by GWENDOLYN BROOKS SICILIAN EMIGRANT'S SONG by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS APPRECIATION by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY BOOKS by WILLIAM COWPER THE FLOWER OF BEAUTY by GEORGE DARLEY GLOIRE DE DIJON by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE RHOECUS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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