Usward Poem Analysis

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This love poem fights back against Euro-centric standards of beauty and praises the women of color who shout their Black is beautiful. Brooks’ love for women who wore their hair curly and never compared themselves to the women in the media held as the standard of beauty because Farrah Fawcett and Marilyn Monroe did not reflect their beauty. This poem applies to the theme of pride because the author wants African American women to feel proud of the hair they were born with and not try to strive for having long straight hair like the white Americans. In this poem, Brooks applauds her sisters who do not worship Marilyn Monroe and try to replicate that style. She wants Black women to feel confident and proud with their own self and not try to be…show more content…
“Usward” emerged in the visual text, with “ward” having a politically loaded meaning custody, district and to push away. The cryptic words do allude to the compromises in the rising of people of color. Bennett’s poem comes out firmly on the side of social mission of supporting artist. The strength in entity is intersected with the idea of the individual’s relation to race; however, they are both connected to the aesthetic ideology of uplifting Blackness in this poem. Although the mother by Gwendolyn Brooks is a more universal poem, it still holds importance and speaks directly to the female audience. Brooks’ the mother implicitly explores the impact of poverty and womanhood on the life of a female character. The poem depicts the struggles and regrets of a poor woman who has had several abortions. The mother has continuing anxiety and anguish because of her difficult decisions. The very first line of the first stanza, "Abortions will not let you forget," immediately draws attention to the title, "the mother," and to the importance of the word love, what it has meant to the narrator to love her children or the children she might have had. The narrator of the poem, the mother of the lost children, ultimately accepts responsibility for her acts, although she seems to alternate between evading and admitting that responsibility. It also gives insight to the more conservative values of the African American community as it pertains to the role of Black

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