Use of Prosody in the Selected Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks...

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented. What makes a good poetry? It is not only in the idea or thought of what the author is trying to express. What makes a good poetry beautiful is in how the writer makes use of the words, lines, and spaces and indents. The rhythm of the poem can make a significant impact in the expression of the idea. Even the structure of words can make a†¦show more content†¦The pattern made by the alliteration and assonance makes the poem so easy to remember and also easy imagine. In this way, it is possible to get the feeling of hearing the blues also which was described by the speaker in the poem. There is also an overall effect of becoming familiar and understanding how the blues echoed through the head of the speaker. Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life. Born in 1917, she started her writing career in poetry at an early age, publishing her first poem in 1930. 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black Writers Conference. In this conference, she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement. While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works, some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement. She has also written essays, reviews, and books. She is also a prolific poet, becoming extensive in writing poetry which moves from the traditional ones to even the unrestricted free verse. Her characters are mostly from the underclass of the black neighborhoods which shows the impact of city life to the people within. As one of the most visible poets in the United States, she is active not only in public readings and poetry workshops but she also participates in contests and classes