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| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
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| Gwendolyn Brooks |
Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917 and raised in Chicago.
She is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, including Children
Coming Home (The David Co., 1991);...
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| the sonnet-ballad
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by Gwendolyn Brooks |
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Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover's tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won't be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate--and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, "Yes."
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
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From "Appendix to The Anniad: leaves from a loose-leaf war diary" in Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks, published by Harper. © 1949 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Used with permission. All rights reserved. |
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