A Sunset of the City

Throughout the poem, the image of a house represents the speaker. As a mother, the speaker is now put away like toys as her children are “gone from the house” (Line 3). Originally, the speaker’s life is warm and she has a clear role to fulfill, just like the house. Now, the speaker is unwanted and there “is no warm house / That is fitted with [her] need” (Lines 14-15). Now, the speaker, whose life is waning, is like “this cold house” (Line 17). Her life is left empty, and she is left to reflect on it like a “house / Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls” (Lines 17-18). With this house symbolizing the speaker, Brooks emphasizes the speaker’s womanhood and society’s expected roles for women.

The sunset, though it only appears in the poem’s title, is another symbol for the woman’s aging. Like a Romantic poet, the speaker compares her experience to natural elements. The poem describes youth as a summer where the “sun stays” (Line 9). In contrast, death is the night. Like a sunset, aging happens slowly over time, not all at once. The warmth slowly goes away, leaving “a real chill” (Line 13). The dying light of autumn further emphasizes the sunset’s loss of light.