I Would Follow This Poem to Hell and Back

Our critic A.O. Scott marvels at the power and paradox of a sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Isabella Cotier

By A.O. Scott

Feb. 21, 2025

Here’s a poem about patience, about self-control, about the need to conserve your energy and constrain your desire. Fittingly enough, it’s a proper old-school sonnet, orderly and elegant: 14 lines of iambic pentameter, crisply punctuated, with syllables cut to measure.

0 my   1 dreams 2 ,   3 my   4 works 5 ,   6 must   7 wait   8 till   9 after   10 hell  

11 by   12 Gwendolyn   13 Brooks  

14 I   15 hold   16 my   17 honey   18 and   19 I   20 store   21 my   22 bread  

23 In   24 little   25 jars   26 and   27 cabinets   28 of   29 my   30 will 31 .  

32 I   33 label   34 clearly 35 ,   36 and   37 each   38 latch   39 and   40 lid  

41 I   42 bid 43 ,   44 Be   45 firm   46 till   47 I   48 return   49 from   50 hell 51 .  

52 I   53 am   54 very   55 hungry 56 .   57 I   58 am   59 incomplete 60 .  

61 And   62 none   63 can   64 tell   65 when   66 I   67 may   68 dine   69 again 70 .