Gwendolyn Brooks, The Influence Of Children In Her Poetry

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Gwendolyn Brooks, the Influence of Children in her Poetry Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the greatest black poets of the 20th
Century. Her outstanding works that deal with various issues of black community people are popular in contemporary curriculum
study of poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks was incredibly devoted to children. After she was named Poet Laureate of Illinois, she created
the Poet Laureate Awards, which she gave every year to children in kindergarten through 12th grade. She also did close to 200
speaking engagements a year at schools, hospitals and prisons. Gwendolyn Brooks was a National Treasure who never received the
rewards she deserved.

First African American to win the Pulitzer, first black woman to be Library of Congress Consultant Poet and many more of her
achievements can be mentioned to express the pride that people have towards her works. But her influence is the reward - the lives
she changed, the spirit she passed on, the poetry that she lived. Brooks poems describe the negative and encouraging aspects of
urban surroundings. She is showing her love towards children in many of her works thus showing her dedication towards the
improvement of the situation with racism that bothers many people in contemporary society. Gwendolyn Brooks is a very nice and
loving person. While reflecting on the tensions of her time period due to racial oppression, Brooks shows much love for all people no
matter what social class they stand. In her writings, she expresses her love for her brothers, sisters, relatives, and just any person
that needs love. Brooks quotes, To be in love is to touch things with a lighter hand. Brooks has only written two love poems, When
youve forgotten Sunday and Steam Song, but she expresses her love in all of her poems.

She expresses her love to children of African American origin in every single piece of poetry she writes. She is trying to send a
message to the society that all people are actually equal no matter what the skin color is. Therefore her message is saying that
people should treat each other equally and not being prejudice of such things as skin color. Brooks wanted her poetry to reach out to
people who did not usually read her type of writing. She wanted her poetry read by younger people, so she formed a workshop for
younger writers. She is known for her poetry to be very straightforward and realistic; it strikes dead center. Therefore it is possible
to say that Brooks succeed in doing her business pretty well and her message reached people who are expected to act according to
what they decide about it.

But, according to my opinion, she did make improvements towards the better with her writing. Frm the beginning, criticism f Brks
pems has invlved cntrversy abut the relative imprtance f frmal excellence, which several critics assciate with white literary traditins
and black plitical cmmitment. First the reviews and then critical essays are presented chrnlgically, rather than by theme r tpic, but
this divisin f pinin- which includes disputes abut the (traditinally white) claims f universality as ppsed t the scial missin expressed by
black peple fr black peple- recurs thrughut the critical histry represented in the bk n Gwendlyn Brks: Reliant Cntemplatin. Paul
Engles 1945 review f A Street in Brnzeville has been cited by later writers as a statement f predminately white values which Brks
later learned t ppse and t transcend: Engles says that Miss Brks is the first Negr pet t write whlly ut f a deep and imaginative talent,
withut relying n the fact f clr. J. Saunders Reddings review f Annie Allen blames Brkss representatin f racially specific experiences
that nly anther Negr can get as cterie stuff.

Stanley Kunitzs review f Annie Allen finds Brkss treatments f caste and prejudice t be uncertain but praises her technical assurance.
Vicing a different critical interest, Harvey Curtis Webster finds that her best scial pems yet are in The Bean Eaters (1960); in
cntrast, Nick Aarn Frd wrte that The Bean Eaters des nt seem wrthy f a Pulitzer Prize winner. (Brks Annie Allen [1949] had wn the
Pulitzer Prize fr petry.) With a bluntness that was t evke cntrversy, Luis Simpsn expressed the traditinally white universalist view,
writing in 1963 that if being a Negr is the nly subject, the writing is nt imprtant. In ppsitin t that view, the appreciatin f Brkss wrk in
relatin t black activism was viced by Addisn Gayle, Jr., wh wrte in 1972 f Brkss cming t share with yung black pets a determinatin t
create petry that is mre meaningful t black peple. Fllwing Brkss accunt in her autbigraphy Reprt frm Part ne (1975), mst critics date
this interest in black activism and Afrcentric writing frm Brkss experience at a Black Writers Cnference at Fisk University in 1967
and her invlvement in the late sixties (including a petry wrkshp) with a black teen gang in Chicag called the Blackstne Rangers. In
1971 Rbert Farnswrth called her a pet-reprter with an eye fr the peple and events f a black urban wrld pushed inward by white
repressin.

The scial and plitical imprtance f the literary arguments abut the value f Brks wrks- including a denial f the putative superirity f
universalist claims and traditinal frms- was stated with great clarity in 1975 by Haki R. Madhubuti (Dn Lee), in an essay that has
been widely read, having appeared as an intrductin in Brkss autbigraphy, Reprt frm Part ne. Befre 1967 Brks had been n the radway
t becming a cnscius African pet thugh still accmmdating her wrk and her persn t definitins that were impsed n her frm the utside;
Gwendlyn Brks is deeply invlved with black life, b
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