The Bean Eaters (Poem) Summary
Gwendolyn Brooks

The Bean Eaters (Poem) Overview

“The Bean Eaters” a three-stanza poem by Black American poet Gwendolyn Brooks. First published in the September 1959 edition of Poetry magazine, in 1960 it became the title poem of Brooks’s third collection of poetry, centered on scenes from Black American life. Borrowing from both modernism and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, the poem explores poverty, isolation, and memory in deceptively simple language. In the process, it offers a poignant portrait of life for the marginalized during a period of great social change.