Gwendolyn Brooks’s “The Bean Eaters,” first published in her 1960 collection of the same name, follows the slow rhythm of an elderly couple’s daily life. The poem's careful attention to the look and feel of the couple's tiny apartment—both scruffy and homey, poor and warm—subtly examines themes of aging, class, and nostalgia, all through the lens of everyday life in 20th-century Chicago.

• Read the full text of “The Bean Eaters”

• “The Bean Eaters” Summary

• “The Bean Eaters” Themes

  • 

    Old Age and Memory

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-11
  • 

    Discrimination and Neglect

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-11

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Bean Eaters”

  • Lines 1-2

    They eat beans ...
    ... a casual affair.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 3-4

    Plain chipware on ...
    ... Tin flatware.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-6

    Two who are ...
    ... lived their day,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-8

    But keep on ...
    ... putting things away.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-10

    And remembering ... ...
    ... twinklings and twinges,

    

    

    

    

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  • Line 11

    As they lean ... vases and fringes.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Bean Eaters” Symbols

  • 

    Beans

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “beans”
    • Line 11: “the beans”
  • 

    Clutter

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 8: “things”
    • Line 11: “beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes”

• “The Bean Eaters” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “eat,” “beans,” “mostly,” “old,” “yellow,” “pair”
    • Line 2: “affair”
    • Line 3: “chipware”
    • Line 4: “flatware”
    • Line 5: “Two,” “who”
    • Line 6: “Two,” “who”
    • Line 11: “lean,” “beans,” “beads,” “receipts”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “Plain,” “chipware,” “plain”
    • Line 4: “Tin,” “flatware”
    • Line 10: “twinklings,” “twinges”
    • Line 11: “beads,” “receipts,” “dolls,” “cloths,” “tobacco,” “crumbs,” “vases,” “fringes”

  • End-Stopped Line

    

    

    

    

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    Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “pair.”
    • Line 2: “affair.”
    • Line 3: “wood,”
    • Line 4: “flatware.”
    • Line 5: “Good.”
    • Line 6: “day,”
    • Line 8: “away.”
    • Line 9: “remembering ...”
    • Line 10: “twinges,”
    • Line 11: “fringes.”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “old yellow pair”
    • Lines 3-4: “Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, / Tin flatware”
    • Line 11: “they lean over the beans,” “their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.”
    • Line 11: “As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “mostly”
    • Line 3: “Plain,” “ware,” “plain”
    • Line 4: “ware”
    • Line 5: “Two who,” “Mostly”
    • Line 6: “Two who”
    • Line 7: “on,” “putting,” “on”
    • Line 8: “putting”
    • Line 9: “remembering”
    • Line 10: “Remembering”
    • Line 11: “and,” “and,” “and,” “and”

• “The Bean Eaters” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Yellow
  • Chipware
  • Flatware
  • Twinklings
  • Twinges
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “this old yellow pair”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Bean Eaters”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Bean Eaters” Speaker

• “The Bean Eaters” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Bean Eaters”

• More “The Bean Eaters” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks — Read a collection of interviews with the author. The first interview contains a brief discussion of “The Bean Eaters.”

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to Brooks reciting a selection of her poetry, including "The Bean Eaters." Her reading of "The Bean Eaters" begins at 22:10.

    • Biography of Gwendolyn Brooks — Read an overview of the poet's life and works.

    • The Love Between Hughes and Brooks — Learn more about the relationship between the author and her mentor, acclaimed Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes.

    • The Black Arts Movement — Read a detailed history of the Black Arts Movement, of which Brooks was a member.

    • Digital Access to the Collection — Read Brooks’s 1960 poetry collection, which is titled after this poem.

    • The History of Bronzeville, Chicago's "Black Metropolis" — Watch a video interview with a resident of Chicago’s Bronzeville district, the neighborhood that inspired much of Brooks’s work.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks

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    • Sadie and Maud

    • We Real Cool

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