Gwendolyn Brooks: Poems Literary Elements

The poem "The Bean Eaters’’ is told from the perspective of a third person objective narrator and point of view.

The poem "Children of the Poor’’ is written in an iambic pentameter.

In the poem entitled "An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire’’, the narrator compares her lover who rises from her side with a ‘’lion in Afrikan velvet’’. The comparison is used in this context to create an imposing image of the lover, to portray him as someone who is extremely powerful and who can be at times even dangerous and unpredictable.

We find an instance of alliteration in the lines "And went to the door with a thirty-four/ And a beastly butcher knife’’ in ‘’The Ballad of Rudolph Reed’’.

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The poem ‘’The Bean Eaters’’ is a meditative poem.

The action in the poem "An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire’’ takes place during the night in the narrator’s room.

The tone used in ‘’The Ballad of Rudolph Reed’’ is a depressing and violent one, highlighting the dangers through which the characters in the ballad went through.

The protagonist in the ballad entitled ‘’The Ballad of Rudolph Reed’’ is Rudolph and his family and the antagonists are the white men and women who refuse to accept them because of their race.

In the most of the poems analyzes, the main conflict is between the white racist people and the black people who find it hard to find their place in the world.

‘’The Ballad of Rudolph Reed’’ reaches its climax when the main character, Rudolph is killed by the white men who he tried to fight against.

In the beginning of the poem ‘’The Blackstone Rangers’’, the narrator mentions the presence of ‘’sores in the city’’ that do not heal. The presence of these sores foreshadows the description of the horrible ways in which the major characters in the poem are treated and are forced to live in.

In the beginning of the poem ‘’Children of the Poor’’ the narrator transmits the idea that the characters presented in the poems do not have enough money to buy the necessary things they need. This is however an understatement as it is later proven that the word poor is used to describe a completely different state.

In the poem entitled ‘’Children of the Poor’’ the narrator alludes that those who are childless are colder and harsher than those who do have children because they are less compassionate and less willing to help those around them. Thus, people are childless are portrayed as being generally worse people than those who do have children.

In the poem "An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire’’ we find the term ‘’we’’ used as a general term to make reference to every couple which is alive on this planet.

We find a personification in the line ‘’world is bitten and bewarred’’ in the poem ‘’Children of the Poor’’.

We find a hyperbole in the poem ‘’The Blackstone Rangers’’ in the lines ‘’Sores in the city/ that do not want to heal.’’

We find an onomatopoeia in the line ‘’who have begged me for a brisk contour,’’ in the poem ‘’Children of the Poor’’.