Throughout the poem, Brooks writes as a mother looking back on moments she will never share with children whose lives were not brought into being. The language of the work is full of pain, and the images are stark and sorrowful. Known for works that resonate as both deeply personal and culturally and socially conscious, Brooks writes about the tragic emotional aftermath a mother experiences in the years following an abortion in the 1945 poem The Mother.
Critically acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks often focused on the experience of poor urban African Americans in her poetry.
