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Gwendolyn Brooks Explication Essay, Research Paper

love note

I: surely

Surely you stay my certain own, you stay

My you. All honest, lofty as a cloud.

Surely I could come now and find you high,

As mine as you ever were; should not be awed.

Surely your word would pop as insolent

As always: ?Why, of course I love you, dear.?

Your gaze, surely, ungauzed as I could want.

Your touches, that never were careful, what they were.

Surely ? But I am very off from that.

From surely. From indeed. From the decent arrow

That was my clean naivete and my faith.

This morning men deliver wounds and death.

They will deliver death and wounds tomorrow.

And I doubt all. You. Or a violet.

War is a reality that has plagued man for many centuries. It effects all aspects of life and has often been the historical turning point for many movements that have changed the world?s views about race, culture, society, economics, and politics. This is evident in most history books and political records, but the plight of the common man, the solider, the mourning wife, the parent or friend, is often forgotten about except for in literary works. Gwendolyn Brooks? Gays Chaps at the Bar is a collection of sonnets written in reaction to the problems as well as realities of World War II. In it she poetically explores the topics of loss, duty, danger, and love in relation to war, but her poems are not typical sonnets. As a seminal writer, Brooks effectively uses poetic forms such as rhyme and rhythm to enhance the social commentary of her poetry, proving that she has mastered traditional poetic devices. For example, in the sonnet love note I: surely, she takes the love relationship of one couple and shows how it can be changed by the cruelties of war. Their love affair, something that was genuine, is suddenly doubted because of the realities of that which is going on in the world around them. Not only has the war taken the lives of the soldiers that are fighting in it, but it has also taken away the speaker?s faith in love. The use of the sonnet to explore this topic is highly effective. Not only is she able to bring a voice to this topic, but she manipulates the sonnet?s form and structures as well as poetic devices (rhyme, meter, etc.) to exemplify both the romanticism and realism that lie in the ideas of love and war.

love note I: surely has a very unique poetic form. Brooks has combined the English and Italian forms of the sonnet to enhance its meaning. The first half of the poem is written in the traditional English form with the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd, but instead of there being three quatrains there are only two, forming the octave common to the Petrarchan sonnet. The turn in the poem?s meaning comes after the initial octave in which a sestet follows. Using the form of the Italian sonnet, Brooks comments upon the ideas presented in the initial octave. The way in which the poem is presented lends itself to being interpreted from two perspectives. In one instance it can be perceived as a letter from a woman whose love is away fighting in the war, or it could be viewed as a letter from a black soldier who is doubting his country and the events that are unfolding around him. In this paper, the former perspective will be explored in depth.

In the first quatrain, the lovers? relationship is established. ?Surely you stay my certain own, you stay/My you.? In either of their lives, their love is what is certain and constant. War is not a constant state of being. In contrast, the lovers know each other so well that it is undoubted that their love will remain unchanged. The poet goes on to examine her lover?s known characteristics, the things that will never vary. He is honest and somewhat haughty, he is ?lofty as a cloud,? high on himself, life, or both. She finds her lover to be infallible stating, ?Surely I could come now and find you high.? There is a great confidence in her words. He is hers. These are such beautifully romantic thoughts. Love is often something that can be inconstant, but in the case of the poet and her lover it is never ending.

Brooks uses the technique of enjambment in the lines that begin with ?Surely? in the octave. The smooth transitions of one line into another create a light airy movement in the first lines of her poem. She is conveying the ideas of love and romance as she feels them; the poet is in love and carefree. There is an emphasis on the feelings of the speaker instead of the constraints of the sonnet form throughout the poem, hence the fusion of the two forms of sonnet. Also contributing to the rhythm of the poem is the rhyme. At first glance it seems as though the poem does not rhyme at all but upon closer inspection the poem has a near or slant rhyme; some of the consonant and vowel sounds are repeated. This type of rhyme scheme gives the poem a very subtle musical quality and it avoids the brash effect of a feminine or masculine rhyme scheme that can sound very elementary if done incorrectly. True, a sonnet is a ?little song,? but this poem is ultimately about something very somber; a definite rhyme scheme could have made the poem less effective in its seriousness.

In the second quatrain the author echoes the sentiments and techniques introduced in the first. Although the ideas are the same, there is a thematic break in the speaker?s attitude about her lover. Love, though still definite, has become unromanticized. She says, ?Surely your word would pop as insolent/As always: ?Why, of course I love you, dear.? Her lover does not to seem to feel the meaning behind his declaration of love. It seems as though this woman?s lover is so used to saying this that it is almost said in a disdainful way. She goes on to say that his touches were never careful but that they were ?what they were,? marked by the use of

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