Summary Of My Dreams Must Wait Till After Hell By Gwendolyn Brooks

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Dear Hoover High Student, When I chose my black poet, though it might have been rather unusual, I picked my poet at random. I did not want to do someone who probably everyone has heard of or studied in the past. So, I decided to spread my wings a bit and chose a poet by the name of Gwendolyn Brooks. First of all, I am quite envious of her name. It has such a spiffy ring to it. I digress, the poem I chose by Brooks is entitled, “My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell.” It goes as follows: I hold my honey and I store my bread In little jars and cabinets of my will. I label clearly, and each latch and lid I bid, Be firm till I return from hell. I am very hungry. I am incomplete. And none can tell when I may dine again. No man can give me any word but Wait, The puny light. I keep eyes pointed in; Hoping that, when the devil days of my hurt Drag out to their last dregs and I resume On such legs as are left me, in such heart As I can manage, remember to go home, My taste will not have turned insensitive To honey and bread old purity could love. Gwendolyn Brooks was born in June of 1917 in …show more content…

According to Brooks, “My Dreams” can be categorized as a lyrical poem, with a first person narration. What I took from the poem was that Brooks reflects on the experience gained by the African American people being subjected to two cultures. The first is her African roots and culture, and the other is the American culture where she and the rest of the black community are alienated. She seeks to emphasize the suffering of her and her people due to the loss of their identity and heritage. And because of this loss, African Americans desired to return to their root culture. The poem therefore outlines the narrator’s journey of hardship to the root culture in the matter of calling her present situation “hell.” The narrator’s tone of despair shows her struggle to survive in a world that persistently holds her

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