By: Anna Eisen 

When she screamed the rafters shook

And when she cried the shingles broke

And when she whispers flowers leaned

And when she stomped they writhed and screamed

When she hummed it was a song

But when she sang it was not for long

But when sunshine shone upon her face 

The sadness? 

Oh, it did not leave a trace 

During this semester I was most inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks’s 1949 poem, Do Not be Afraid of No. I felt like it spoke very clearly to me about what it means to be a woman, and how it feels to learn to come into your own identity, to learn to value things because you like them, not because they are what you are supposed to want. When reading this poem I was also very interested in how Brook’s used such clear yet expressive diction throughout the whole work, carefully using concise phrasing to describe such an abstract concept as personal freedom. For example in the 6th stanza, she writes “A flying furniture, or bird with lattice wings and gaunt things, a stammering down nightmare neon”. We can see here how she describes real objects in such a way that almost no other poets have, and it creates a beautiful chaos of words in one single phrase. So for my final project, I decided to write a short poem that reflected back what it felt like for me to grow up and learn the power I held in the identity that I could shape for myself, similar to the theme of Do Not be Afraid of No, by using similar poetic techniques. I took great inspiration from Brook’s use of forceful and concise phrasing that she supported by using couplets in this poem to create a reflective yet rapid environment in her work. This poem was inspired by my younger sister because I wanted to write something about growing up as a young girl, to relate to Brook’s themes of womanhood, and no one was more important in my time as a child than my younger sister has been. So this poem is dedicated to life growing up with her, and finding out what it truly means to grow up into a person you are proud to have become. Throughout the poem, I used a couplet format until the final line and learned how to use concrete diction in the most effective way with phrases such as “And when she cried the shingles broke '' that I felt used this poetic device effectively. I also used personification in the second stanza, by giving flowers human-sounding qualities, like the ability to lean in to listen to something, this was inspired by the line in Do not be Afraid of No “ flying furniture” which gave life to an ordinary household object, a technique I found very effective within her work.