Sadie and Maud
Sadie and Maud - context Summary
Published in 1960
Published in The Bean Eaters (1960), this free-verse poem contrasts two sisters: Maud, who goes to college and ends up isolated, and Sadie, who stays home, raises children, and leaves a simple domestic legacy. Brooks sketches social consequences and community judgment around education, respectability, and family choices without moralizing. The spare narrative tone and plain detail invite readers to weigh outcomes and values within mid‑20th‑century black urban life.
Read Complete AnalysesMaud went to college. Sadie stayed home. Sadie scraped life With a fine toothed comb. She didn't leave a tangle in Her comb found every strand. Sadie was one of the livingest chicks In all the land. Sadie bore two babies Under her maiden name. Maud and Ma and Papa Nearly died of shame. When Sadie said her last so-long Her girls struck out from home. (Sadie left as heritage Her fine-toothed comb.) Maud, who went to college, Is a thin brown mouse. She is living all alone In this old house.
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