Gwendolyn+Bennet

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=**Gwendolyn Bennett:**=

By: Charity Vincent


Gwendolyn Bennett was born on July 8, 1902 in Giddings, Texas. In 1906 Gwendolyn moved to Washington D.C., and then later to New York. This is where she attended the Brooklyn's Girls' High, from 1918 to 1921, and was the 1st African American to join the drama and literary societies.(Biography) Gwendolyn then graduated high school, and went attended Columbia University and the Pratt Institute. During her undergraduate degrees, Gwendolyn wrote her 1st poem published called “Nocturne” that was published by the //Crisis// Magazine. This is when a lot of her famous poem writing began. In 1924 she was introduced to many other African American writers, such as Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, along with many others at a literary dinner in honor of a poem she wrote for a magazine called the //Opportunity.//(Haas)

Gwendolyn's poetry then became very famous and she was often praised. Theodore Ward said that she was the “most promising of the poets out of the Harlem Renaissance.” IN 1926, Bennett became the assistant to the editor of the magazine the //Opportunity,// and was given her own column to write, which she called //The Ebony Flute.// She then continued to work but later had the trail of having a very poor and unhappy marriage. After her husband died, Bennett became Assistant Director of the Harlem Community Art Center in 1937. She worked there for a long while until she died on May 30, 1981 in Pennsylvania. Gwendolyn Bennett fit into the Harlem Renaissance, because she was a strong, and very opinionated woman. She was an African American, and wrote a lot of poems based on freedom, and rights and feeling of African Americans. She was an inspiration to all who read her works. She shows self-expression through her poetry.(Haas)

=Poem:= =**"Epitaph"- Gwendolyn Bennett**=

When I am dead, carve this upon my stone: Here lies a woman, fit root for flower and tree, Whose living flesh, now mouldering round the bone, Wants nothing more than this for immortality, That in her heart, where love so long unfruited lay A seed for grass or weed shall grow, And push to light and air its heedless way; That she who lies here dead may know Through all the putrid marrow of her bones The searing pangs of birth, While none may know the pains nor hear the groans Of she who lived with barrenness upon the earth.

=Analysis:= Gwendolyn Bennett was a very influential writer. She was an African American, and wasn't afraid to state her opinion. Her poems often reflect sadness, which probably is due to her hard marriage, and the divorce of her parents when she was younger. This poem is talking mainly about having hope. At first, the poem seems sad, which it really is. This is shown when she says "that in her heart, where love so long unfruited lay" (5). This demonstrates the sadness, and depression that she found in her marriage, and the fact that she never really found true love. However, although it does show sadness, and depression, it later turns into hope, and is inspiring. Bennett tells that a seed shall begin to grow, and will "push to the light" (7). That no matter what that seed that is poanted shall make it through and live and grow.

Bennett is maybe implying that now she is now dead, (figuratively) that hopefully all the trials and hard times she has gone through in her life will be able to plant, or be the beginnings of something new. And that through her efforts, the ashes and body that is "fit root for flower and tree" (2), that something beautiful and new will grow from what she has started, and will make it through no matter what.

=WORKS CITED:=

Haas, Theresa. "Gwendolyn Bennett." //Bennet, Gwendolyn, B.// 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .

"Gwendolyn Bennett Biography." //Biography.com//. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

"Epitaph - Written by Famous African-American Writer Gwendolyn Bennett Send This Poem to a Friend... "Famous Black Poetry" Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .