The Ballad Of Rudolph Reed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FAGA HIJI KLLL MAAA HNON PLNL AMMQ RNHN QSTS HOUO VWAW ADXD YZWA2

Rudolph Reed was oakenA
His wife was oaken tooB
And his two good girls and his good little manA
Oakened as they grewB
-
I am not hungry for berriesC
I am not hungry for breadD
But hungry hungry for a houseE
Where at night a man in bedD
-
May never hear the plasterF
Stir as if in painA
May never hear the roachesG
Falling like fat rainA
-
Where never wife and children needH
Go blinking through the gloomI
Where every room of many roomsJ
Will be full of roomI
-
Oh my home may have its east or westK
Or north or south behind itL
All I know is I shall know itL
And fight for it when I find itL
-
The agent's steep and steady stareM
Corroded to a grinA
Why you black old tough old hell of a manA
Move your family inA
-
Nary a grin grinned Rudolph ReedH
Nary a curse cursed heN
But moved in his House With his dark little wifeO
And his dark little children threeN
-
A neighbor would look with a yawning eyeP
That squeezed into a slitL
But the Rudolph Reeds and children threeN
Were too joyous to notice itL
-
For were they not firm in a home of their ownA
With windows everywhereM
And a beautiful banistered stairM
And a front yard for flowers and a back for grassQ
-
The first night a rock big as two fistsR
The second a rock big as threeN
But nary a curse cursed Rudolph ReedH
Though oaken as man could beN
-
The third night a silvery ring of glassQ
Patience arched to endureS
But he looked and lo small Mabel's bloodT
Was staining her gaze so pureS
-
Then up did rise our Roodoplh ReedH
And pressed the hand of his wifeO
And went to the door with a thirty fourU
And a beastly butcher knifeO
-
He ran like a mad thing into the nightV
And the words in his mouth were stinkingW
By the time he had hurt his first white manA
He was no longer thinkingW
-
By the time he had hurt his fourth white manA
Rudolph Reed was deadD
His neighbors gathered and kicked his corpseX
Nigger his neighbors saidD
-
Small Mabel whimpered all night longY
For calling herself the causeZ
Her oak eyed mother did no thingW
But change the bloody gauzeA2

Gwendolyn Brooks



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