Poetry analysis: A Sunset of the City, by Gwendolyn Brooks

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A Sunset of the city  

                                    by Gwendolyn Brooks    

 

Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.
My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,
Are gone from the house.
My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite
And night is night.

It is a real chill out,
The genuine thing.
I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer
Because sun stays and birds continue to sing.

It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone.
The sweet flowers indrying and dying down,
The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown.

It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes
I am aware there is winter to heed.
There is no warm house
That is fitted with my need.

I am cold in this cold house this house
Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls.
I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs.
I am a woman who hurries through her prayers.

Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my
Desert and my dear relief
Come: there shall be such islanding from grief,
And small communion with the master shore.
Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin,
Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry
In humming pallor or to leap and die.

Somebody muffed it?? Somebody wanted to joke.

 

Poetry analysis: A Sunset of the City, by Gwendolyn Brooks

 

“Sunset of the City” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a symbolic poem that characterizes a woman who is in the Sunset of her life. The poem is reflective of the woman’s life as well as heavy with the realization that she is in the final stage of her life on Earth.

The title of the poem is symbolic of the speaker’s life. The word “sunset” symbolizes the end of the day. The end of the day symbolizes rest after a long day of work. The woman’s life has been spent and it is symbolic that her work on Earth is nearing the end. The word “city” is symbolic of activity, energy, and spirit. With the choice of the word “city” in the title, Brooks creates the image of someone who had a lively and passionate lifetime, by this final stage of life is not nearly as active and robust as it was.

In the opening line, the woman admits she is “no longer looked at with lechery or love”. This line reflects that the woman was physically desirable in her youth, but the season of her life for being desired and loved has passed. Time and age has taken away her beauty and her desirability to be in her presence.

In the line that follows Brooks writes “my daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls/and are gone from the house.” This reflects that the woman’s children have moved on and have become adults.  They are leading their own independent lives now and have left her behind like the toys of their youth. Marbles and dolls are symbolic of play things and youthful frivolity, something used to pass the time that they have outgrown. For the mother, who is the speaker of the poem, she is no longer relevant in their lives. Instead, if her adult children would return home and see the toys from their youth, they may reflect on the fun that they had with the item, but they don’t take it out and play with them.

In the toys had a place in the adult children’s lives they would no doubt to be a novelty on a shelf, and more likely they would be something the adult children would just discord. It leaves the reader with the impression that if her children do come to see her, that it is just for a quick visit, a novelty, not that the mother is a centerpiece of their daily lives.

The next statement made by the speaker is that husband and lovers are “pleasant or somewhat polite”.  It creates a question in the mind of the reader who the lovers are “pleasant or somewhat polite”. It creates a question in the mind of the reader who the lovers are. On the surface, one might think that this means male physical lovers and that may be, but there is a possibility that these “lovers” mean friendships instead. It would make sense that she may be referring to her husband and friends as people that are present in her life, but who offer no real meaning. It is like the tolerate her. As pleasant as these people are in her life, it doesn’t change the fact that “night is night”. This means that sunset is nearly over and her time on Earth is coming no matter what her relationships   are with her family or friends.

The speaker next indicates that she is not fooled into believing that there is a possibility that she is still in the summer of life. Summer would symbolizes the prime of life, in full bloom, growth, and beauty. She knows that even though life goes on and there is still sunshine and birds, that doesn’t mean that she is in the summer of her life.  Brooke symbolizes the passing of summer and the prime of life with the images of “sweet flowers in drying and dying down” as well as “grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown”. This is symbolic of the women’s own personal beauty. She sees in herself that she is not in the prime of blooming and blaze; instead, she is as the stage of drying and shriveling up.

Brooks repeats the phrase “It is a real chill out.” At the beginning of the second and fourth stanzas, the repetition of this phrase is used to emphasize the sense of inevitability. The speaker can’t delude herself into believing that it is a temporary chill and not a change to the final season of her life.  It emphasize that it is real and lasting. She realizes that she is in house that is ill-prepared for winter. This symbolizes the decline of the woman’s health. She realizes that she is heading into a stage where it will not be warm enough for her to survive, just as it was not warm enough for the flowers and the grass to survive.

 With the personification of life as a house, Brooks uses words such as “echoes”, “tremulous”, “lost halls”, and “dusty” to describe her life.  The word “echoes” has connotations of something far off that as time continues to pass the sound becomes less and less. This is reflective of her memories of her youth, marriage, raising children and managing a household. “Tremulous” gives the connotation of emotions and refers. Leaving her life behind is an emotional thing for the woman and fear of where her life is heading next creates an impression of vulnerability. “Lost halls” creates the impression that there were paths that she did not take in life and symbolizes regrets. “Dusty” creates the sense of non-use. If something sits idle and unused, it becomes dusty. The speaker is like the dusty house, unused and gathering dust.

The speaker gains acceptance for her situation and appears to see the end of this dry “desert” as dear relief.  She feels that when death comes, it will be an island of relief from a hard life and all her grief. She mentions “communication with the master shore” which would be symbolic of the day that she sees the face of God, her day of reckoning. She indicates that she “hurries through her prayers”. This gives the sense that she feels an urgent need for prayer in the hope for heavenly forgiveness. Earlier in the poem  she mourns  for the children  who no longer see  her  as relevant, this  gives  the reader  a sense  that the woman   sees  herself as a sinner, in need or prayers and forgiveness to reach the “master shore”.

Brooks leaves the reader with the impression that the woman is left with a  sense of  dilemma wondering if she should die a withering death in the  winter of her  life or if she should “leap and die” which  would indicate thoughts  of suicide. This may also indicate the need for the urgent prayers.

Brooks ends the poem with a single line stanza “somebody muffed it? Somebody wanted to joke”. This final line leaves more questions than it answers. “Muffed” would indicate a mistake. It seems like Brooks may be symbolizing that the speaker is unhappy with her “house” and her surroundings. She hints at regrets, sins, and perhaps lovers.  Is it the woman who fears that she has “muffed it”? is she fearful  at the end of her life that she has sinned so greatly that she may not see the “master shore?” There is also the suicidal hint, which may reflects the sin of suicide which may be so great that after a life well-lived to kill herself would make it that she would not arrive at the “master shore”. Perhaps it is the intent of Brooks to have the reader feel unease at what the end is for the speaker. The final words “somebody wanted to joke” gives the sense that someone was perhaps not taking the spiritual tenets of life seriously enough and heaven and may not be reward.

 

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