POEM SADIE AND MAUD

KHAIRUL ANUAR BIN SAMSUDIN

NURUL NABIHAH BINTI MOHD NASIR
PRIYAA A/P SUBRAMANIAM

Maud went to college.

Sadie stayed home.
Sadie scraped life
With a fine toothed comb.
She didn't leave a tangle in
Her comb found every strand.
Sadie was one of the livingest chicks
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 left as heritage
Her fine-toothed comb.)
Maud, who went to college,
Is a thin brown mouse.
She is living all alone
In this old house.

THE POEM BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS

BACKGROUND OF THE POET

Gwendolyn Brooks was a highly regarded, much-honoured poet, with the distinction of being the
first author to win the Pulitzer Prize.
She also was poetry consultant to the Library of congress the first black woman to hold that
position.
She was born in Topeka, Kansas, but her family moved to Chicago when she was young.
Her father was a janitor who had hoped to become a doctor, her mother was a schoolteacher
and classically trained pianist. They were supportive of their daughters passion for reading and
writing.
Brooks was thirteen when her first published poem, Eventide, appeared in American Childhood
After such formative experiences as attending junior college and working for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she developed her craft in poetry
workshops and began writing the poems, focusing on urban blacks, that would be published in
her first collection, A Street in Bronzeville.
In the 1950s Brooks published her first and only novel, Maud Martha, which details a black
woman's life in short vignettes.

BACKGROUND OF THE POET

Brooks's later work took a far more political stance.
Brooks's activism and her interest in nurturing black literature led her to leave major publisher Harper
& Row in favor of fledgling black publishing companies.
In the seventies, she chose Dudley Randall's Broadside Press to publish her poetry (Riot, Family
Pictures, Aloneness, Aurora, and Beckonings ) and Report from Part One, the first volume of her
autobiography. She edited two collections of poetryA Broadside Treasury and Jump Bad: A New
Chicago Anthologyfor the Detroit-area press.
Brooks put some of the finishing touches on the second volume of her autobiography while serving as
poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. Brooks was sixty-eight years of age when she became
the first black woman to be appointed to the post. Of her many duties there, the most important, in
her view, were visits to local schools. Similar visits to colleges, universities, prisons, hospitals, and
drug rehabilitation centers characterized her tenure as poet laureate of Illinois.
In that role, she sponsored and hosted annual literary awards ceremonies at which she presented
prizes funded "out of her own pocket, which, despite her modest means, is of legendary depth,"
Reginald Gibbons related in Chicago Tribune Books. She honored and encouraged many poets in her
state through the Illinois Poets Laureate Awards and Significant Illinois Poets Awards programs.

GENERAL MEANING
Sadie and Maud represent the double bind issue
that is present with women in Western Culture.
Maud who follows all the socially constructed
guidelines ends up alone. Sadie who is happy
with her choices and lifestyle is ridiculed by
society and is shunned by her own family. The
story of Sadie and Maud demonstrate the
impossible standards that are set forth for
women. Whether you follow the hegemonic ideals
or not you will eventually be shunned and looked
down upon like Sadie or become alone and
unhappy like Maud.

MEANING BY STANZAS

STANZA 1
Maud went to college
Sadie stayed home
Sadie scraped life
With a fine tooth combed

Maud is the one who goes out to continue her

study while Sadie stay still at home. This
essentially shows that Sadie lived her life to the
fullest and basically without a care as the
description is immediately contrasted previously
by Mauds going away to college.

STANZA 2
She didnt leave a tangle in
Her comb found every strand
Sadie was one of the livingest chicks
In all the land.

Sadie made the most out of her life, and didnt leave a
tangle in any part of it. She made sure to experience all she
could . Baby chicks learn to fly and eventually leave their
families in search of their own place in the world. Chicks walk
out into the world, are nosy and curious at everything, meet
up with cats, fall in ponds, and get stepped on. Those that
survive, like Sadie did, have memories now to last them
forever, and do not regret the fears and troubles experienced
because it helped them have fun and live life out to the fullest.

STANZA 3
Sadie bore two babies
Under her maiden name
Maud and Ma and Papa
Nearly died of shame.

Sadie gives birth to two babies when she

still a girl without a husband. This matter
totally gives a bad impact to all her family
members because Sadie had spoiled her
familys name.

STANZA 4
When Sadie said her last so-long
Her girls struck out from home
( Sadie left her heritage
Her fine tooth-combed )

Those babies grew up to be wonderful and independent striking out

from home. Perhaps this means that she intended for her daughters
to live the same way, but they didnt, and instead they struck out
from home. The daughters disagreed with Sadie and her traditional
ways and when she said her last so-long they decided to leave,
possibly for college. The comb is meant to symbolize the intensity
with which Sadie looked for things to make her life more interesting.

STANZA 5
Maud, who went to college,
Is a thin brown mouse
She is living all alone
In this old house.

Maud, on the other hand, who goes to college perhaps to satisfy the
expectation of her parents or society who should have been more
successful in life ends up living all alone in this old house. Not a home,
but a house, a place in which her body may rest, but not her heart.
Mauds nave decision to go to college, only to lose opportunities that
couldve been spent with family and only to return to live all alone in
[her] old house. Mice more often than not live in groups, and always
stay in the shelter of their mouse holes. Although it is true that mice are
quick, on their feet, and always active, they are this way only to live
outtheir lives, meeting the requirements needed to survive, and nothing
more.

THEME
The theme of Gwendolyn Brooks's "Sadie and
Maud" is that going against the grain of society
is perfectly acceptable. Brooks conveys this
message by depicting two contrasting sisters:
Maud, who follows the rules of society, and
Sadie, who does not allow social expectations
to dictate her life. The poem explains how
these women lead very different lives that
reflect the choices they make.

POETIC DEVICES
METAPHORE
Defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects.
Maud, who went to college. Is a thing brown mouse.(20)
The poet compare Maud with the thin brown mouse that was she is living all alone like a mouse lives in its hole.
Sadies experiencing of life is compared with a Comb moving through hair(3-6)
CAESURA
The pausing or stopping within a line of poetry caused by no punctuation.
Line 19: She is living all alone.
Maud, who went to college.
We can see that caesura is used when we read the line by pausing at Maud.
HYPERBOLE
Extreme exaggeration for effect.
livingest (7)
Maud and Ma and Papa (11)
Nearly died of shame.(12)
It shows over description about the action Ma and Papa when Sadie bore two babies without wedlock.

POETIC DEVICES
SYMBOL
A symbol is graphical, written, vocal or physical object which represents another .
The symbolism of Sadies fine-tooth comb, as a heritage is a optimistic twist on the
way she lived her life and the way her children will remember her and follow her.
Alliteration
The repetition of a beginning sound
the s in referring to Sadie: Sadie stayed, Sadie scraped, strand, shame, and
so-long (3, 4, 6, 14, 15).
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds
the use of the o sound, especially in the first and last stanzas: college, home,
fine-toothed comb, college, brown mouse, alone, and old house (1-4; 19-22).

ISSUES
ISSUE AND MORAL VALUS ( SADIE AND MAUD )

Protest against the limited opportunities available to African American

women in the society presented.
Black people were discovering and trying to stay in their place in the
still very racist society, being a minority it was difficult to truly fight
for their rights being outnumbered and all. That is just what we were
to a minority, so for Sadie and Maud it was double the trouble not
only were they black but they were also females, double minorities. It
was only natural for their parents to desire better opportunities for
their daughters given how few they themselves were probably
afforded. Unfortunate though because given either path both women
decided to venture on there would always exist the negative
consequence, and I will go on to explain just what I mean by that.

MORAL VALUES

One should decide their own path and

accept for they are.
We should not discriminate our own family
members.
Do not judge a book by its cover