The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks is a revolutionary African American female poet who writes about poverty, social injustice, family dynamics, discrimination, hate, power, urban life, hegemony, liberation, multiculturalism, oppression and social constructions. Her work is respected by many institutions, and she has been awarded countless fellowships, awards and honorary degrees. In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and since then, the amount of titles Gwendolyn has been awarded for her writing, literature and poetry contributions has escalated.

I think Gwendolyn Brooks is worthy of having this fan page because of the intensity of her words, the amount of literature she has produced and been awarded for, the subject matter that she is personally connected to and for having such charisma and passion in her words when she reads. I admire Gwendolyn Brooks because I admire any person who comes off as overly passionate. I think that she is revolutionary in the way she has decided to write her poetry, what she has to decided to write about and how she presents her craft and for those reasons, I am a true fan.

I wanted to do a blog on Gwendolyn Brooks because when we were introduced to her poem "Real Cool," in class, I was instantly struck. I enjoyed and appreciated her writing style because she exposed the realities of the boys in the poem without making it appear obvious, blatant, or preachy, but instead presented it as any other normal thing. I found Brooks' point of view in that specific poem to be very inspried and thought out, since she had decided to write in a less direct way or rather, roundabout way. I knew after that class that I wanted to read more of her work, and since doing so I have realized that this is her natural writing style, and it is something I really enjoy reading.

The poem I chose to analyze for this blog is a poem called, "The Ballad of Rudolph Reed," which is about a black family who moves to a white neighborhood, which results in violence, and ultimately death. Although the subject matter of this poem is a bit heavy, I liked the poem because she rhymed the lines, described the family's situation before and after the move very eloquantly as well as getting a lot of information accross with very few words.


The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

by Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks

Rudolph Reed was oaken.

His wife was oaken too.

And his two good girls and his good little man

Oakened as they grew.

“I am not hungry for berries.

I am not hungry for bread.

But hungry hungry for a house

Where at night a man in bed

”May never hear the plaster

Stir as if in pain.

May never hear the roaches

Falling like fat rain.

“Where never wife and children need

Go blinking through the gloom.

Where every room of many rooms

Will be full of room.

”Oh my home may have its east or west

Or north or south behind it.

All I know is I shall know it,

And fight for it when I find it.“

It was in a street of bitter white

That he made his application.

For Rudolph Reed was oakener

Than others in the nation.

The agent’s steep and steady stare

Corroded to a grin.

Why, you black old, tough old hell of a man,

Move your family in!

Nary a grin grinned Rudolph Reed,

Nary a curse cursed he,

But moved in his House. With his dark little wife,

And his dark little children three.

A neighbor would look, with a yawning eye

That squeezed into a slit.

But the Rudolph Reeds and the children three

Were too joyous to notice it.

For were they not firm in a home of their own

With windows everywhere

And a beautiful banistered stair

And a front yard for flowers and a back yard for grass?

The first night, a rock, big as two fists.

The second, a rock big as three.

But nary a curse cursed Rudolph Reed.

(Though oaken as man could be.)

The third night, a silvery ring of glass.

Patience ached to endure.

But he looked, and lo! small Mabel’s blood

Was staining her gaze so pure.

Then up did rise our Rudolph Reed

And pressed the hand of his wife,

And went to the door with a thirty-four

And a beastly butcher knife.

He ran like a mad thing into the night.

And the words in his mouth were stinking.

By the time he had hurt his first white man

He was no longer thinking.

By the time he had hurt his fourth white man

Rudolph Reed was dead.

His neighbors gathered and kicked his corpse.

”Nigger—“ his neighbors said.

Small Mabel whimpered all night long,

For calling herself the cause.

Her oak-eyed mother did no thing

But change the bloody gauze.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.

This poem contained several themes that we touched upon in class such as discrimination, oppression, patriarchy, hegemony and double bind. Discrimination is obvious in this poem, from the disapproving faces of the neighbors, the rocks thrown at their house, the destruction is caused to their house and their daughter Mabel. Oppression is found in the fact that the white men of the community ended up killing the father of the black family after her ran out to defend his daughter from the violence his neighbors were causing. Patriarchy is another element in this poem, possibly less obvious, because it is the father who decides to move the family, and it is the father who was expected to protect his family after one of his children were hurt by the objects being thrown into the windows of their house. The hegemony of the dominant white community is found in this poem since the neighborhood is an all white neighborhood, and all those white neighbors are on each others side, not the side of the black family. We can see that the whites have much more power and superiority in this community, and therefore cause the father to die fighting a double bind. The father of Mabel is put into a situation where whatever he does, he will fail, a double bind, and his failing results in him losing his life. Since his daughter was hurt by the men outside, it is his "duty" as a man and a father to fight back, or else his manhood is up for question but he does not have one person on his side to back him up since everyone in the community is white. He wants to stand up to the violent neighbors to show that they don't have all the power, but in fact they do, and he loses his valiant fight.