19 pages • 38 minutes read
Gwendolyn BrooksA Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1960A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context
The backdrop for this poem is highly specific, and it is impossible to accurately interpret or analyze “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” without possessing a basic understanding of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, as well as the nuances of southern culture, Jim Crow laws, post-Reconstruction era southern politics—and, most significant to this poem—the murder of Emmett Till. (For a thorough explanation of Emmett Till’s murder, as well as the socio-political ramifications, see the “Chapter 1 | The Murder of Emmett Till” video clip from the PBS documentary in the Further Reading section of this guide.)
In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till, a native of Chicago, visited family in Mississippi, which was, at the time, a heavily segregated area of the country, ruled and regulated by Jim Crow laws (See “Jim Crow Laws: Definition, Facts & Timeline in the Further Reading section of this guide for an explanation of Jim Crow laws.) After speaking to a married white woman, Till was attacked and murdered by two white men. The men involved were acquitted of Till’s murder after the fact.
Brooks’s poem “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” is a response to Till’s murder, and the details of the case appear, poetic and figurative, in the poem. “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” was originally published only five years after Till’s brutal killing—and many readers at that time would have been familiar with the murder and subsequent trial. “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” is particular because of its focus on and analysis of the white woman involved in the case.
Literary Context
“A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” is often considered as a companion piece to Brooks’s other response poem to the murder of Emmett Till: “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till,” which focuses on the point-of-view of Emmett Till’s mother. The two poems were published in 1960 in the same collection of poetry, and both poems reference the ballad form. Neither “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” nor “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till” are ballads themselves; however, both poems rely on reader expectation of the ballad form to deconstruct archetypal, traditional belief systems. As a poet of the Postmodern age, Brooks’s deconstruction of the ballad is an effective strategy for commenting upon outdated traditions, cultural and literary.
Related Titles
By Gwendolyn Brooks
