18 pages 36 minutes read

Gwendolyn Brooks

Cynthia in the Snow

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1956

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Themes

Childhood and Black Joy

“Cynthia in the Snow” is about the childhood experience of joy—its primary image is that of a young Black girl enjoying snowfall. The poem strikes modern readers as touching on Black Joy, a contemporary term for the age-old concept of the importance of acknowledging the moments when Black people can celebrate, even while facing and fighting oppression. In the poem, Brooks’s speaker, a young Black girl named Cynthia, explores the happy surprise of catching snow falling before it merges with the mud of the road and turns into a mucky mess. Brooks creates a world where a young Black girl marvels at the beauty of the snow around her, imbuing it with quasi-magical powers as she imagines it laughing, and unselfconsciously making up sing-song rhymes about its seemingly willful movements as she calls its “twitter-flitters.”

Even though there is darkness at the edges of Cynthia’s experience: the snow is possibly laughing at her, or at least in a way that excludes her, and its whiteness adds an element of oppression and unreachable purity to Cynthia’s already race-conscious internal world, Brooks intentionally focuses on awe and wonder. The poem is intended for children, to create joy in them and to mirror their own experiences.

Related Titles

By Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi...

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

A Sunset of the City

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Boy Breaking Glass

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Speech to the Young

Gwendolyn Brooks

Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The birth in a narrow room

Gwendolyn Brooks

The birth in a narrow room

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Blackstone Rangers

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Crazy Woman

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Lovers of the Poor

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

the rites for Cousin Vit

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

To Be in Love

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

To The Diaspora

Gwendolyn Brooks

Study Guide
logo

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

Ulysses

Gwendolyn Brooks

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks