19 pages • 38 minutes read
Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)
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Background
Literary Context
It’s difficult to discuss Brooks’s poem apart from the context of two crucial literary movements: the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. The former occurred in New York during the 1920s and 30s, and encouraged Black writers and artists to express their lives, voices, and multidimensional identities. The latter was also centered in New York and brought force and experimentation to the works of many Black writers throughout the United States.
While the topics addressed in "Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)" are universal since all young people—regardless of their skin color—can be bold, loud, and rebellious, they also specifically tie into the context of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. These literary developments helped provide the platform for Brooks to address the young people in such a unique and assertive voice.
As Brooks’s children Nora and Henry are among the audience, the idea of race can’t be entirely removed from the picture—even if it’s not an explicit issue in the poem. The absence of overtly racial words is likely intentional. As much as the Harlem Renaissance informed Brooks, she rejected what she felt to be the movement’s fetishistic portrayal of Black people. In George Kent’s critical biography, A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks (University of Kentucky Press, 1990), Brooks tells her Harper & Row editor she aims to show that Black people are “merely human beings, not exotics.”
Additionally, it’s important to consider Brooks’s poem in the context of a history of poems and literature about forceful, stormy youth. Poets from all occupations address the notion of youth. Brooks’s “sun-slappers” (Line 3) links to the young lovers in Andrew Marvel’s poem "To His Coy Mistress” (1681) who try to make the sun “stand still." More so, the “harmony-hushers” (Line 5) resemble the loud mob of boys and girls in Emily Dickinson’s poem "From all the Jails the Boys and Girls” (ca 1881). The recklessness of youth also relates to the capricious Mary Dalton and the impulsive Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s novel Native Son (1940) and the besotted young men in James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room (1956).
Historical Context
Brooks published "Speech to the Young" in 1970—a period when American youth were in the spotlight. Throughout history, young people have been cast as rebellious, contrary, loud, and wild. In the 1960s and 70s, the narrative accelerated due to the prominence of the counterculture scene. Across the country, many young people were experimenting with drugs, sex, and bold lifestyles that upended previous norms and did not place a premium on the concept of harmony.
Additionally, young people became increasingly political as they violently protested the deadly Vietnam War and militant groups like the Black Panthers advocated for civil rights. During this heady moment in history, Brooks wrote her poem. Brooks, too, supported change, progress, and justice, yet she was also pragmatic and believed in maintaining one’s poise and elegance. It makes sense that, at this unsettling juncture, she chose to address the youth.
There’s also Brooks’s personal history to consider. As her biography demonstrates, Brooks took an interest in children and young people throughout her life. She wrote about them in her books and interacted with them in life. In A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun, Angela Jackson says Brooks “nurtured, encouraged, and addressed children whenever possible.” Due to Brooks’s sincere investment in young people, the poem doesn’t read like a grownup trying to dictate to young people what to do and think. Rather, it's a poem from someone attuned to the feelings and ways of young people, and since they care about their audience, they want to help them prosper and succeed.
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By Gwendolyn Brooks
