At forehead and at fingers rather wise, / Holding the bandage ready for your eyes."
The speaker of a poem in this collection promises to "turn, singularly calm / At forehead and at fingers rather wise, / Holding the bandage ready for your eyes." The jarring line "thousands--killed in action" opens a three-poem "appendix" subtitled "Leaves from a loose-leaf diary" that appears in the middle of this collection, followed by the poem "The Children of the Poor." The title character exclaims "How pinchy is my room!" in this collection's first poem, which begins "Weeps out of western country something new" to describe her (*) birth. The middle part of this collection adapts Chaucer's meter over forty-three stanzas describing the title character's fantasy romance with a tan-colored knight who is conscripted to fight in World War II. In this collection, sections titled "Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood" and "The Womanhood" sandwich a mock-heroic epic titled "The Anniad." For 10 points, name this collection detailing the upbringing of an African-American girl, written by Gwendolyn Brooks.
The speaker of a poem in this collection promises to "turn, singularly calm /
Annie Allen