Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)

"Speech to the Young” is a lyric poem. It's short and reflects personal beliefs and feelings. The names in the title’s parenthetical bolster the personal aspect of the poem. If the reader knows about Brooks' life, they might be aware that she had two children: a daughter named Nora and a son called Henry. Her children are among the young people the speech seeks to reach. Brooks asks that her kids hear this, and the request underscores the speech's sincere tone. The audience includes two young people who are an intimate part of Brooks's life, so it's logical to say Brooks is the poem's speaker. Yet Brooks doesn’t explicitly identify herself as the speaker in the poem, so, out of deference for her individual identity and the craft of poetry, it’s also fine to refer to the speaker as the speaker, so the identity of the speaker doesn’t get in the way of discussing what they say, how they say it, and the poem’s themes.

The title offers one of the main themes of the poem: youth. As the speech seeks to capture the attention of the young, the focus is on them.