21 pages • 42 minutes read
Gwendolyn BrooksThe Blackstone Rangers
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“The Blackstone Rangers” is a poem of 66 lines divided into three numbered parts. There is no regular rhyme, rhythm, or stanza length, making the poem free verse. The primary organizational structures are the Parts, with each Part representing a different perspective on the Blackstone Rangers. The Parts grow progressively longer and the point-of-view more subjective and interiorized over the course of the poem.
There are some highly rhythmic lines, achieved with strings of stressed syllables. Every syllable in Line 1 is stressed, and every syllable but the last—"ready” (Line 3) is stressed in Line 3. That strong stress communicates the tension in the scene as the gang members face off with the police. The last line of the first stanza has three iambs in a row (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), “that do | not want | to heal” (Line 5), that give the line a regular rhythm, fitting since these last two lines mark a moment of clarity for the observer, who realizes there will be violence because the Rangers want it that way.
Other portions of the poem are held together with incidental (irregularly occurring) rhymes. “Mary’s / Februaries” (Lines 40-41) share end sounds, but Brooks chooses an alternate spelling of “Februarys” to make an imperfect or slant rhyme (rhyme achieved with similar but not identical sounds). She uses internal rhyme (rhymes in the middle of lines or spread across several lines) as well: “Februaries shudder and are gone. Aprils / fret frankly, lilac hurries on" (Lines 41-42). These kinds of rhymes underscore that there is an underlying yearly cycle to Mary Ann’s life, but sudden violence makes that life feel precarious, subject to disruption at any moment.
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a contradiction, the combination of two things that seemingly cannot exist at the same time. Brooks uses oxymorons to reflect the speaker’s ambivalence in the second section of the poem. “Bungled trophies” (Line 14) are oxymorons because a trophy should be a celebration of something worth bragging about, while a bungle is a mistake, one that might shame the person committing it.
The Rangers show that Black people can self-organize, but the result here is a street gang that may well victimize other Black people. The “monstrous pearl” (Line 29) is an oxymoron because pearls are generally beautiful rather than “monstrous” (ugly; [Line 39]), or because pearls are generally small rather than large in size. The Rangers are likewise a distorted expression of Black potential and a small part of the South Side that has now grown rapidly.
Metaphor
Brooks relies on metaphors—comparison of unlike things—throughout the poem to help the reader relate what they do know—“[s]ores” (Line 4) and “a rose” (Line 39)—to what they do not. A sore is a wound that indicates underlying damage or infection, and the Rangers are “[s]ores in the city / that do not want to heal” (Lines 4-5). If the underlying health of body is good, sores heal with the passage of time or minimal care. If the underlying health is bad or care is not taken with a sore, it doesn’t heal. This metaphor implies that, while the readers may not be aware of it, the underlying health of American cities (the body) is poor, and that neither political powers nor people within communities in Black Ranger territory have the resources to make those communities whole.
Instead, one finds people like Mary Ann. Mary Ann is a “rose” (Line 39), a traditional symbol of girls, young women, and love. She is a “rose in a whisky glass” (Line 39) because she nurtures herself and seeks love in places that are inhospitable to her and her dreams (the whisky glass). The choice of “whisky glass” echoes “the spirals of his flask” (Line 53), with the implication that the gang represents protection for Mary Ann, even if that protection is limited and limiting. Using that metaphor allows the reader to see Mary Ann as someone precious, worthy of nurturing, but forced to find nurturing in relationships that don’t give her what she needs.
Related Titles
By Gwendolyn Brooks
