How Did Gwendolyn Brooks Affect Poetry

Gwendolyn Brooks: Writing poetry is tough. It demands precision in word choice, careful crafting of rhythm, a deep dive into emotions, and it brings out your creativity. A poet navigates through the difficulty of language, striving to express feelings that the average human can’t put into words. Each line is a deliberate choice, aiming to stay with the reader's heart and mind. But, there are some poets that don’t just impact humanity, but also impact English Literature. Gwendolyn Brooks was an incredible poet and influenced the lives of many with her spoken word. Gwendolyn Brooks was an African-American poet that won various awards throughout her career. She was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917, then months later moved to Chicago, IL. Poetry and bookwriting led her to be the

Some may assume that as a poet, she was spoiled by her parents or grew up better than most of her race at the time, but this is not true. Gwendolyn was born to David Brooks, a runaway slave, and Keziah Corinne, a former school teacher and concert pianist. David and Keziah encouraged young Gwendolyn to read, which helped, because this made her an avid reader at a young age. In school, Gwendolyn’s peers mistook Brooks’s introversion and shyness for snobbery. In other moments, they criticized her expensive clothing (gifts from an aunt) and alienated her for having dark skin. She used this as motivation to dedicate herself to poetry entirely. In Gwendolyn Brooks’s adolescence, she wrote numerous poems. At age thirteen, Gwedolyn Brooks collected many different poems that she wrote into one notebook. Brooks made her national debut in the “American Childhood magazine” with the poem “Eventide.” At 16, Brooks contributed regularly to the Chicago Defender’s “Lights and Shadows” poetry column, publishing nearly one hundred poems in the popular “Black newspaper”. Gwendolyn Brooks’s adulthood included awards and