“A Song in the Front Yard” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a narrative poem. This poem is written from the perspective of an innocent, naïve child. The poem tells several stories, the surface story and the hidden metaphor. Therefore, the narrator is that of a child, the surface story is of a young girl who has lived a sheltered, picturesque life. The young girl lives life in the “front yard”, but she wishes to live in the “back”. The metaphorical meaning of the poem must be read in context of the time when Brooks was writing. “A Song in the Front Yard” is the epitome of a Harlem Renaissance poem. The Harlem Renaissance embraced “literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white …show more content…
It is the celebration of “the Negro”. In this stanza the narrator lists the wonderful fun of the other. This stanza also references the “wonderful things” that the backyard people do. The reader realizes that the narrators mother represents the Victorian, white ideals. The mother sneers at those from the backyard. This stanza is most full of the colloquial language of the African American culture. This language celebrates the heritage that Brooks wants to revitalize.
“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.” In the fourth stanza is Brooks sates she wants to be everything that her mother has been against. The narrator would like to be a bad woman too. These “bad” people are not repressed or made to come in at a certain time. These “bad people” are free. “A Song in the Front Yard” is a narrative poem that tells the story of the narrator’s childhood with a metaphorical wish to be like the other. A child narrator was used to show the innocence. The childs voice is used by making demands, the narrator wants and she does not care about objections. The narrator always repeats “do” frequently, she is acting. This poem is the literal manifestation of the Harlem Renaissance ideals. The narrator is calling for the front yard and the backyard to be