the rites for Cousin Vit

The poem falls into the sonnet category: It has 14 lines, and each line has approximately five feet or ten syllables. Some lines, like Lines 2 and 3, feature 11 syllables. Brooks invents a unique rhyme scheme that changes as the poem progresses. The slightly skewed meter and the creative rhymes show how a modern poet can leave their stamp on a traditional form.

The speaker of the sonnet is something like an omniscient narrator. It’s not Cousin Vit, but it’s someone who knows an awful lot about her and what has happened in her life. The speaker serves as the reader’s guide to Cousin Vit and her robust spirit. Reading the poem on its own without ancillary information, it makes sense to think of the speaker as a third party whose identity isn’t important. Brooks wrote this poem about a particular friend; therefore, it’s appropriate to think of the speaker as a Black woman writing about another Black woman. Whether the speaker is Brooks specifically isn’t so important. What’s pertinent is that the Black woman speaker writing about Cousin Vit demonstrates the bond and kinship amongst Black women.

The tone of Brooks’s sonnet is snappy and quick. Something happens to Cousin Vit right away. The “rites” in the title have “[c]arried” Vit “unprotesting out the door” (Line 1). The active tone continues when the rites—the basic elements of a funeral service—“[k]icked back the casket-stand” (Line 2). Yet the casket “can’t hold her” (Line 2). Like the poem’s tone, Cousin Vit isn’t easy to stop or slow down. Yes, the “stuff and satin” (Line 3) in the coffin try to “enfold her,” (Line 3), but they fail. The lid and bolt also try to confine Cousin Vit to no avail.

The casket stand, stuff, satin, lid, and bolts exemplify personification. Brooks attaches human traits to these objects to highlight Cousin Vit’s irrepressible spirit. The speaker seems to summarize the thoughts of the funeral attendees when she says, “Oh oh. Too much. Too much” (Line 5). It’s as if the speaker is relaying the mourners’ surprise at Cousin Vit’s escape from her casket.

In Line 6, the swift tone stays strong as Cousin Vit “rises in the sunshine” and “goes” back to her electric life. Here, Brooks uses a literary device known as imagery; she creates a picture or image of Cousin Vit emerging out of the casket and into the sun. With Cousin Vit leaving the rites, the speaker’s duties change. Now, the speaker isn’t so concerned with narrating the sequence of events that took place at what was supposed to be Cousin Vit’s funeral. Instead, the speaker wants to describe what Cousin Vit did throughout her life.

The tone remains quick and ebullient, in keeping with Cousin Vit’s fast-paced life. The speaker rapidly takes the reader from one scene to the next. It’s as if the speaker is a tour guide. She's leading the reader on a tour of Cousin Vit’s exciting life. The first stop is the “bars,” (Line 7) which Cousin Vit “knew” (Line 7) well.

Next up are the “love-rooms” (Line 8). When it comes to these amorous spaces, the speaker switches to a somewhat mysterious tone. Maybe the speaker doesn’t feel comfortable saying “sex,” or perhaps the speaker means other things besides “sex,” like affection. However, “things in people’s eyes. / Too vital and too squeaking” (Line 8-9) suggests sexual desire, its strength, and, arguably, the sound made by a bed during sex.

The speaker uses imagery to show how Cousin Vit liked to dance: “Even now she does the snake-hips with a hiss” (Line 10). The snakehips was a type of dance from the 1920s. The reader can see Cousin Vit’s vitality and attitude as she dances while hissing.

In Line 11, the speaker stays with imagery to reinforce Cousin Vit’s drinking habits. In Line 7, the speaker notes Cousin Vit’s familiarity with bars. In Line 11, she spotlights how Cousin Vit “[s]lops the bad wine across her shantung.” This reveals that Cousin Vit wasn’t too picky when it came to wine, nor did she care if lackluster wine got on her dress.

Cousin Vit talks about “pregnancy, guitars, and bridgework” (Line 12). These function as symbols; they represent complex ideas. Pregnancy could represent sex and, possibly, abortion, which Brooks wrote about in an earlier poem “the mother.” Guitars represent music, dancing, and fun. Finally, bridgework represents Cousin Vit’s common humanity. As otherworldly as her exploits appear, Cousin Vit was a human being, and, like other regular people, she might have had problems with her teeth.

The symbolism continues in Line 13 when the speaker says Cousin Vit ventured in “parks or alleys.” A park might represent Cousin Vit’s wholesome side since children can play in parks, and parks have nice grass and trees. The alleys could symbolize Cousin Vit’s rebellious or unconventional streak since alleys tend to be hidden. They can serve as a place for behaviors that shouldn’t be visible to the general public.

In the final line, the speaker explicitly links the poem's buoyant tone to Cousin Vit’s boisterous life. The speaker tells the reader that Cousin Vit was fortunate or “haply” to have arrived at such “happiness” (Line 14). Yes, it was wild or “hysterics,” (Line 14) but maybe true happiness entails bursts of wildness. What makes a person happy is that they can't be easily controlled or forced to conform.

There is movement from the beginning of the poem to the end. At the poem’s beginning, Cousin Vit is contained by the coffin. She is passive, “unprotesting” (Line 1). At the end, she is freed from her coffin and has agency: She dances, “slops” (Line 11), “talks” (Line 11), “walks” (Line 12). This shift is something we also see in stories, where something changes from the beginning to the end.