The Bean Eaters
The Bean Eaters - meaning Summary
Dignity in Quiet Poverty
Brooks’s poem sketches an elderly couple's quiet, modest life: simple meals, worn household objects, routine dress and domestic order. The scene balances tenderness and poignancy as memory surfaces—twinklings and twinges—amid clutter and small keepsakes. The poem observes dignity and persistence in daily domesticity, suggesting a long shared life marked by ordinary rituals and the bittersweet presence of recollection. Brooks gives sympathy without sentimentality or pity.
Read Complete AnalysesThey eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair, Dinner is a casual affair. Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware. Two who are Mostly Good. Two who have lived their day, But keep on putting on their clothes And putting things away. And remembering... Remembering, with twinklings and twinges, As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
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