Tone of Truth
Tone of “Truth” The poem, “Truth,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, was written in 1949, during a continuing era of black oppression in America. Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas but her family moved to Chicago shortly after her birth, according to her biographer, Georg Kent (2). The Poetry Foundation biography of Gwendolyn Brooks says her father was a janitor who had dreamt of becoming a doctor and her mother was a schoolteacher and classically trained pianist (Halley). Both of her parents had dreamt about living the “American Dream” and both suffered hard times and disappointment instead. Brooks’ parents were very supportive of her passion for reading and writing and first sensed her talent at age seven, when she started writing two-line verses and then four within a couple years (Kent 1). “By the time she was seventeen she was publishing poems frequently in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper serving Chicago’s black population,” (Halley). At age 32, Brooks had written her second book of poems, Annie Allen, published in 1949 and in 1950, “Gwendolyn Brooks was a highly regarded … poet, with the distinction of being the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize,” (Halley), for her poems Annie Allen including “Truth”. Brooks uses metaphors, personification, hyperbole, imagery and irony in this poem to illustrate the darkness of the unknown or accepted and the illumination of the truth and all it takes to uphold it. The speaker in “Truth,” has an earnest and reflective voice, yet there is also an inflammatory overtone to the poem. Brooks lived in a time of many atrocities for African-Americans and women and her poems reflected her views on these social and political times. Thom Rosenblum discusses the struggle for segregation by the white population and against segregation by the black population in the Topeka, Kansas public school system from 1879 to 1951. Several court cases such as Brown V. Board of Education, involved black citizens challenging the
Cited: Brooks, Gwendolyn. Blacks. 5th ed. Chicago: Third World Press, 1991. 130. Print. Gross, Terry. "Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North." NPR Books. National Public Radio.org, 13 Sept 2010. Web. 8 Mar 2013. Halley, Catherine, and et al, eds. "Biography Gwendolyn Brooks." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2013. Web. 3 Mar 2013. Kent, George. A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1990. Web. 3 Mar 2013 Kirszner, Laurie G, and Stephen R. Mandell. Portable Literature: Reading Reacting Writing. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. 426-535. Print. Matrix Media Inc. and Silver Spring Md. prod. A Conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks. The Library of Congress 2005. Web. 7 Mar 2013. Parrott, Jill M. "How Shall We Greet the Sun?: Form and Truth in Gwendolyn Brooks’ Annie Allen." NIU.edu. NIU Department of English. 27-41. PDF. 3 Mar 2013. Rosenblum, Thom. "Brown V. Board of Education: National Historic Site Kansas." National Park Service. National Park Service, 7 Mar 2013. Web. 8 Mar 2013.