FreeVerse: Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks
by Jenners • 01/06/2010 • Poetry • 9 Comments
During college, I took a wonderful course in African American Poetry. It introduced me to such poets as Langston Hughes, Rita Dove, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Nikki Giovanni and Gwendolyn Brooks. Today, I thought I’d share one of the poems I loved when I first read it.
Sadie and Maud
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Maud went to college.
Sadie stayed at home.
Sadie scraped life
With a fine-tooth comb.
She didn’t leave a tangle in.
Her comb found every strand.
Sadie was one of the livingest chits
In all the land.
Sadie bore two babies
Under her maiden name.
Maud and Ma and Papa
Nearly died of shame.
When Sadie said her last so-long
Her girls struck out from home.
(Sadie had left as heritage
Her fine-tooth comb.)
Maud, who went to college,
Is a thin brown mouse.
She is living all alone
In this old house.
I always thought Sadie got the better end of the deal, despite the two children out of wedlock and not living as long as Maud. To me, the line “Sadie scraped life/With a fine-tooth comb” meant that Sadie got the most out of life—leaving nothing untouched or undone—and passed this admirable trait to her daughters. I always thought I’d rather be a Sadie than a Maud. How about you?
Maud all the way, baby! But I like your taste in poetry.
I am liking this new comment system. It is the ONE THING I wish Blogger
would offer — threaded comments. I keep thinking I want to move to
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your blog. The thing is, if they don't register, it could be a bit of a pain
to leave a comment. I can understand that people might not want to register
but that is the only real problem I've encountered so far.
I like this. And I totally agree–sounds like Maud isn't too happy.
Definitely Sadie for me…I want to scrape all of life I can with a fine tooth comb even if it means bad with the good!
I think Sadie got more out of life than Maud did, but which one would I want to be? Maybe Sadie but with a college education (maybe if she had lived longer, she would have taken that chance).
Who wouldn't rather be a Sadie?
My favorite Rita Dove poem? The Glass…I'm probably being morbid, but it reminds me of when I cared for my dad as he was dying of cancer.
It seems the author thought Sadie got the better end of the deal too. I don't think I'd want to be on either end of that spectrum but I think I'm Maud. Maybe that's changing.
I too like accessible poetry (in other words, ones where I know what is
being said). Doing this FreeVerse meme is helping me to overcome my own
poetry phobia. And I do think this poem says life is for living … not for
sitting and playing it safe.
I love Gwedolyn Brooks. Her poetry seems so accessible, even to a poetry-phobe like me. (I'm working on that phobia, by the way.) I like the way Sadie's comb found "every strand": the good and the bad that life has to offer. I guess if you're going to really live life, you're going to experience a lot of good and a lot of sadness….no way of escaping it unless you hide from life like apparently Maud did.