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

One of my favorite poems "We Real Cool" is by Brooks. I love the power of the messages she conveys in a matter of a few words. In this particular poem I was drawn to the stanza in which the woman is setting the table. It reads,


 "She made the babies sit in their places at the table.
Then, before calling Him, she hurried
To the mirror with her comb and lipstick. It was necessary
To be more beautiful than ever.
The beautiful wife.
For sometimes she fancied he looked at her as though
Measuring her. As if he considered, Had she been worth It?
Had she been worth the blood, the cramped cries, the little
stuttering bravado,
The gradual dulling of those Negro eyes,
The sudden, overwhelming little-boyness in that barn?
Whatever she might feel or half-feel, the lipstick necessity was
something apart. He must never conclude
That she had not been worth It."




This particular stanza really blew me away. Relationships are like algebra. They are hard and they build upon what was previously learned. A lot of the dynamics between two people are not necessarily shown through the words the two parties exchange but in the actions that take place with the other party in mind. The woman setting the table and making sure everything is "just right" so that the thought of "her not being worth it" to her counterpart does not enter the mind is really a powerful notion and sets the stage for the poem. She is a housewife, living her life in the confines of her home under the domineering eyes of her husband. Considering the context of what the poem is about with the Emmit Till travesty, it seems that this particular housewife is a model for all housewife's during that time period and represents just that. The complacency and submissive role of the house wife could quite possibly be a metaphor for society and maybe even how the government just sits on the sidelines making sure everything is all "hunky dory" like nothing bad is actually happening in the world. Brooks has a great way of saying powerful ideas in the under linings of her words.