Gwendolyn Brooks A Song In The Front Yard

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In Gwendolyn Brooks’ “A Song in the Front Yard,” the narrator wants to be in the “back” with the bad kids. She seems tired of being good, and wants some fun instead. This fun comes not simply from being bad; but also, “fine,” “honest,” and “brave.” Being in the back yard can both be bad and honest simultaneously due to the narrator's youth and innocence.

Brooks imagines the conflict in this poem as one between the front yard and the back yard. The front yard is associated with good, familiar, and safe.The back yard is associated with bad, unknown, yet fun. The front yard well tended and roses grow there. The back yard is described as “rough and untended and hungry weeds grow.” (3) The weeds represent what isn’t seen by the public, …show more content…
“They do some wonderful things. / They have some wonderful fun.” (9, 10) She views the children playing in the back yard as wonderful. The narrator is sheltered from having fun, when deep down she is just a child and states that “it’s fine” despite her mother’s warnings. This is due to the narrator’s youth and innocence. She just wants to have fun playing with the other children despite their reputation and social status.

The poem is written from the narrator’s perspective. The speaker is a participant in the story. We cannot trust the speaker’s perspective because this is based off of a child’s views. She is young and innocent and does not understand that her mother is just trying to protect her in the long run. She just feels as if her mother is wrong and is trying to shelter her from having some honest fun, and she longs for just a

“peek.” The speaker's relationship with her mother isn’t good because they have different opinions about the back yard and the children that play there[i].

The poem ends with the speaker imagining herself in the back yard. The poem is entitled “A Song in the Front Yard” because it is from her perspective from the front yard. I think that her perspective of the back yard may change if she was allowed to experience it. Being in the back yard can both be bad and honest simultaneously due to the narrator's youth and
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