17 pages 34 minutes read

Gwendolyn Brooks

The birth in a narrow room

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1949

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Poem Analysis

Analysis: “the birth in a narrow room”

The poem is less about race or gender and more about the fragile gift of childhood. Except for the poem’s extratextual frame—we know that this poem was the first in a cycle of 11 semi-autobiographical poems that drew from Brooks’s own experiences as a sensitive, introspective Black child coming of age in the Chicago’s working class Bronzeville neighborhoods in the years after World War II, when America was still very much a segregated nation—little in the poem suggests that we are dealing with anything but a tender, imaginative girl.

Her family is impoverished—the house is small (“pinchy” [Line 8]), cluttered with inexpensive objects, lacks indoor plumbing (no indoor toilet, no indoor running water), and has a tiny bug-thick yard scattered with empty cans and jars. This poem takes place before the child understands the dimensions of race. For her, the world is not yet black and white. The tension in the poem is not about race or gender. That slow-motion epiphany will come all too soon. The tension in the poem centers on the world as it is and the world that can be brought to life by the bold energy of the imagination. The

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi...

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Cynthia in the Snow

Gwendolyn Brooks

Cynthia in the Snow

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Speech to the Young

Gwendolyn Brooks

Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks