Ulysses

Prayer has played an important part in Black Americans’ lives since slavers brought the first Africans to the colonies. Spirituals blended the various African cultures with their experiences in slavery. The trauma of their life led to deep expressions of faith, hope, and grief. To this day, Black Americans are statistically more likely to identify as religious and Black churches are often portrayed as more communal with a proliferation of music. By referencing prayer and song, Brooks grounds the poem in the Black experience while also drawing a parallel between the struggles of Blacks throughout history and the present in Chicago schools.

Drawing upon her overarching allusion to Classical epic poetry, her initial use of prayer also recalls how a warrior might pray before battle. These students leave the relative safety of home to enter the dangers of the world that include their schools. But by also ending the poem with the family praying again, Brooks suggests the family has sinned throughout the day and now seeks absolution.

In describing the students’ school day, Brooks specifically draws attention to how the students are taught geography. This choice of subject is pointedly ironic, as Brooks mentions a subject that studies the world to contrast with the failed promise of how education should broaden a child’s world and give them better opportunities.