ROMERO 3A: AFRICAN AMERICAN POET ESSAY

Oh mother, mother where is the happiness? As children when we are hurt or in pain our basic instinct is too call out “ Mother” or “ I want my Mommmmmmyyyy!” Gwendolyn Brooks brings back this basic instinct, to express the sorrow of a woman, losing her husband to war in “ Sonnet Ballad.” Bringing all the qualities needed to catch my attention. When reading I caught a personal connection that reminded me of my life. Sadness, a oh! Wwwooooww!! Awwww!!! Feeling I get every time I read a sentence. Makes you day dream , a movie screen of images fly from your brain. One of the reasons, this poem speaks to me, the personal connection. The woman in “Sonnet Ballad” talks of her lover going off to war. People in my family haven been in the military, and I know what it is like for a person, important to leave. One line in Sonnet Ballad was “When he went walking grandly out that door.” I remember love ones leaving. Emotional scars are left unhealed until, they return. Can’t help but wonder the challenges they face, the chances of him not coming back. I had been through the same simulation and its hard not to wonder if death will over come. Death! Questioning whether your love is true or untrue. Brings sadness when you read it, the repetition of Oh mother, mother where is the happiness? Oh mother, mother where is the happiness? If the character poses such a question, there must not be any happiness at all.
“What I can use an empty heart-cup for.”“He won't be coming back here any more.”“Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew”“When he went walking grandly out that door”“That my sweet love would have to be untrue.”
Each line becoming a stepping ladder of sadness, you feel her heart be broken, and see him walking out the door off to war. She doesn’t want her love to be untrue. She is not asking for her happiness to drift away. So she must ask that person. That person who we have grown up to call too when we are in sorrow times, our mother. Every line you read projects images. “When he went walking grandly out that door”, I see a tall man walking proudly out the door, and a woman watching him. “Would have to court Coquettish death.” I see man fighting for his life, a shadow which represent death chasing him. As a reader I wonder will it catch him. “Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort) Can make a hard man hesitate--and change. And he will be the one to stammer, "Yes." I can see this man broken and weaken , letting death come and whisper in his ear, “Will you sub-come” and this man says “Yes.” after reading the end of the poem. Also movie has just end in my mind, and a audience applauding. Qualities of a great poem is what you get when reading, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonnet Ballad. So if your in search for a good poem read Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonnet Ballad. Sonnet ballad contains a personal connection. A feel of sadness, that make you pity but understand her at the same time. Images that have you looking one way, while trying look the other. Because your not able to the believe what you just saw. If you find any poems that caught your attention the way this one did mine, the be sure too share them.