The Crazy Woman

The Crazy Woman


I shall not sing a May song.
A May song should be gay.
I'll wait until November
And sing a song of gray.

I'll wait until November
That is the time for me.
I'll go out in the frosty dark
And sing most terribly.

And all the little people
Will stare at me and say,
"That is the Crazy Woman
Who would not sing in May.


The Crazy Woman tells of the speaker's perception of herself through the eyes of others. To them she is the "
Crazy Woman." The speaker seems unhappy, as she doesn't sing "in May" when happy songs are sung, but rather in November when she sings "a song of gray." There is a lot of cold and dark imagery in the poem, with phrases such as "frosty dark" and "gray," dispersed in the poem. Like many of her other poems, Brooks has utilized a rhyme scheme.