“Black Woman” by Georgia Douglas Johnson

A Mother is talking to the child she doesn’t have, but wishes she could. She is telling the child about the ugly world that is filled with cruel men and that is the reason she will not have this child.

Close Reading

1)    The title is interesting because it was originally titled “Motherhood” but then was changed to “Black Woman.” I would agree that the title should be Black Woman because it emphasizes the underlying meaning of the poem, racism. There are no clues in the poem that would lead us to believe the poem is about racism, so the title is it! I think once you read the poem, the title has a new meaning.

2)    For once, I actually understand all the words in a poem. This is extremely rare!

3)    Knock and not, In and Sin, You and Cruel, Bear and ear, Pain and Again, Earth and Birth.  Some of these sounds are rhyming, and some are more alliterative. I think the flow of the poem is smooth and the sounds help to emphasis emotion.

4)    A Black Mother is literally talking to a child that she is not going to have. There aren’t any other characters present that we know of. The poem doesn’t really give any hints as to where this is taking place. My perception of the action is changing and I’m starting to think that this woman might be having an abortion?

5)    A knock at the door, a cruel and sinful world, bear the pain, Monster men, precious child, birth. All of these images are working to create a picture in the reader’s mind that the mother is not to blame for whatever is happening; the cruel world is to blame.

6)    The speaker is a woman. She thinks the world is cruel. She does not want a child. She cannot bear the pain of ignoring her child. She is Black. She believes the world is full of monsters. She thinks if she gives birth, the child will live in a horrible world. Her heart can’t handle having a child. She thinks she will reunite with the child in eternity? The speaker is alone. (I hope I got that right.)

7)    (Cruelty, sin, still, eternity, heart, pain, monster, precious, men, birth.)

These are a few words that help set the poems tone. The speaker seems angry towards the ways of man and the world that she doesn’t want to bring a child into it. But I think this poem goes beyond racism. The tone is partly remorseful that she, the speaker, doesn’t want to be the child’s mother.

8)    The poem does follow a structure. There is internal rhyme and end rhyme. The poem has repetition of lines and sounds, which helps to emphasize the emotion.

9)    The tension is between the speaker and the unborn child, and also between the cruel world.

10) “I cannot let you in”

“I cannot bear the pain”

“be still, be still, my precious child”

When I first read this poem I simply imagined a Black woman talking sweetly to herself about why she doesn’t want to have a child. After a closer reading I got a completely different image. Possibly a Black woman, who is disgusted with racism, that she decides to have an abortion because she doesn’t want the child to suffer like her. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but I feel like there is something else going on this poem.