The Old Marrieds
The Old Marrieds - context Summary
Published in 1960
Published in the 1960 collection The Bean Eaters, Gwendolyn Brooks's "The Old Marrieds" sketches an aging couple whose silence at midnight contrasts with surrounding signs of love and memory. The poem compresses time — birdsong and morning stories versus a May night — to suggest distance between past intimacy and present reserve without explicit explanation. Its spare narrative invites readers to supply the emotional gaps.
Read Complete AnalysesBut in the crowding darkness not a word did they say. Though the pretty-coated birds had piped so lightly all the day. And he had seen the lovers in the little side streets. And she had heard the morning stories clogged with sweets. It was quite a time for loving. It was midnight. It was May. But in the crowding darknesss not a word did they say.
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