Sorrow Is Not My Name

Before the first lines of “Sorrow Is Not My Name,” Gay establishes that his poem is in conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the most important poets of the 20th century. By writing “after Gwendolyn Brooks” after the title of his own poem, Ross directs the reader’s experience of the poem, suggesting a lineage for his work. Brooks, a Black poet deeply concerned with racial justice and social problems affecting the Black community, provides a commanding directive at the end of her poem, one that Ross, a Black poet from a succeeding generation, takes up and responds to. While Gay does not specify which of Brooks’s poems he is answering, the final lines of “Sorrow Is Not My Name” adhere closely to the final lines of Brooks’s 1986 poem “To the Young Who Want to Die.”

Gay’s poem begins in dismissal: “No matter the pull toward brink. No / matter the florid, deep sleep awaits” (Lines 1-2). The odd syntax, eschewing articles to create a denser sound texture, jogs readers out of their expectations, establishing that the speaker wants the reader to look at the everyday things of the world and reconsider their details, and not become hung up on notions of mortality. The anaphora, or repetition, of the phrase “no matter” establishes the voice of the speaker and a rapport with the reader. He acknowledges the possibility of depression and the certainty or death, but asks the reader to move through or beyond that.

In the third line, the speaker claims, “There is a time for everything,” (Line 3), perhaps alluding to the common, biblical phrase “For everything there is a season” from the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible’s Old Testament, which touches on themes of life and death. This assertion about ideal timing slows the poem down, preparing the reader for Gay’s next lines, which start with a direct address: “Look” (Line 3). The image that follows is striking both in its visual appeal and in its connection the idea of the right timing:

just this morning a vulture

nodded his red, grizzled head at me,

and I looked at him, admiring

the sickle of his beak (Likes 4-7).

The vulture is a scavenger bird associated with death because it feeds on dead things; Gay heightens this connection by describing its beak as a “sickle,” the weapon the Grim Reaper—the Western personification of Death—carries. But instead of focusing on these associations, Gay pivots into describing his admiration for this creature, painting it as full of life and possibility: When the wind kicks up, the vulture “up and took off. / Just like that” (Lines 10-11). The speaker admires the bird’s freedom and aesthetic beauty, implying inherent dignity in its “good suit of feathers'' (Line 9).

Midway through the poem, Gay creates a volta, or a poetic turn, zooming out from the small detail of the vulture to an overview of the whole world: “And to boot, / there are, on this planet along, something like two / million naturally occurring sweet things” (Lines 11-13). The poem shifts from the specific and minute to the enormous and overwhelming, as the speaker asks the reader to find joy in this discovery. Beginning the sentence with the colloquialism “and to boot” (Line 11) creates lighthearted tension, giving the reader the sense that the speaker is trying to hastily cover all the delightful “sweet things” (Line 13) on Earth after spending so long on the vulture—again, connecting to the theme of correct timing. The speaker emphasizes the impact of this loveliness, comparing it to something that has the power to “to kick / the steel from my knees” (Lines 14-15).

The speaker offers examples of some of these things in quick succession, without the detailed description the vulture received: “agave, persimmon, / stick ball, the purple okra I bought for two bucks / at the market” (Lines 15-17). The list of “sweet things” includes things that are literally sweet—agave and persimmon—but also stick ball, and purple okra that he describes as costing “two bucks / at the market” (Lines 16-17). The combination of items that are outside the everyday—agave is less common than sugar, and persimmon a seasonal fruit—with the common “stick ball” or the cheap two dollar okra highlights the bounty the speaker sees around him: everything has the possibility of loveliness. The list combines several kinds of pleasure: physical taste, the warm camaraderie of friendship, the self-congratulatory ability to find a good deal. The “generous” (Line 14) names of these items highlight the pleasure of language and add a layer of beauty and joy.

Gay punctuates the list by demanding that the reader “Think of that” (Line 17), again slowing the poem down as he asks us to meditate on what list of happy things we would make. He then shifts back to acknowledge the ever-present dark undercurrent of death: “The long night, / the skeleton in the mirror, the man behind me / on the bus taking notes, yeah, yeah” (Lines 17-19). He anticipates the reader’s rebuttals or claims of sorrow in the face of joy, and he dismisses them with a casual “yeah, yeah” (Line 19), diminishing their importance. Instead, he once more asks the reader to “look” (Line 20), and shifts into new images, these ones focusing on human connection: “my niece is running through a field / calling my name. My neighbor sings like an angel” (Lines 20-21). The speaker takes an even more expansive view of joy and beauty, moving from things that bring material pleasure to the transcendence of love and art. In the penultimate line, he creates an image of possibility: “at the end of my block is a basketball court” (Line 22), a place for community, play, and joy.

The final line of the poem directly addresses the final line of Brooks’s poem. In “To the Young Who Want to Die,” Brooks advocates for life in the face of a violent world, ending her poem with “Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring.” (Brooks, Gwendolyn. “To the Young Who Want to Die.” Get Lit Anthology). Gay’s final line reads, “I remember. My color’s green. I’m spring” (Line 23). The speaker acknowledges and amplifies Brooks’s line, agreeing with and internalizing her life-affirming values, thus enacting and celebrating the life that she wanted for her reader. A Black man who was the intended audience for Brooks’s 1987 poem, Gay demonstrates his interpretation of it, becoming “spring” and finding life and joy.