Vivian

__**Individual Analysis**__ By Vivian Hagerty //A Song in the Front Yard// by Gwendolyn Brooks is a very interesting poem to analyze because of the juxtaposition of the theme with other themes of the poem's era. One part of the theme, though, is not uncommon: the first person narrator is a young girl who wishes to have a more independent life away from the rules of her mother. Poems of this era, an era of tribulations and suffering for African-Americans, would generally have a theme in which the speaker wishes to be more affluent and more respected. This is where the contrast comes into play. The young girl speaking in //A Song in the Front Yard// aches to leave the "front yard," a metaphor for her affluent and respectable life, and go out and explore the "back yard," a metaphor for a poorer, shady, and less respectable life. The girl describes her want for a lifestyle other than the comfortable one she has in line 4, "A girl gets sick of a rose." In this line, she acknowledges that she has a good, respectable life, but that she wants to change it. What she wants to change her life to can be seen very clearly the second stanza, "I want to go to the back yard / And maybe down the alley, / To where the charity children play." (lines 5-7.) She wants to have more of a rough, dangerous life, and she believes it is fun to live life a little on the edge, and to disobey her mother. It is clear that the speaker of the poem is disobeying her mother in line 11, "My mother sneers, but I say it's fine". She feels sheltered by her respectable life, which is causing her to rebel against her mother and disregard her mother's beliefs.

One thing that is not explicitly said, but that I infer from the poem is shown in the last stanza.

"But I say it's fine. Honest I do. And I'd like to be a bad woman, too, And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace And strut down the streets with paint on my face." (lines 17-20.)

It seems, because she says that she wants to be a "bad woman," that there is some sort of novelty to what she is doing. To her, the idea of a "bad woman" is exciting in its nefariousness, which leads to the novelty. This novelty includes rebelling against her mother, and just wanting to go out and have fun. I think that if we were to have another poem that updated us to the situation of the girl it would show that the novelty has worn off, and that she is doubting whether or not she actually wants to be a "bad woman," and whether or not it would have been a good idea just to be content with her comfortable life within the security and rules of her mother.

In conclusion, I think an interesting point in the poem //A Song in the Front Yard// is how the girl wishes not to live a more respectable and affluent life, but to live in a more rough, dangerous, and exciting life. I also believe that the excitement of this dangerous life and the girl's wishes to be a "bad woman" are novelties which will soon wear off and leave the girl more despondent than when she began.