In her poem “The Crazy Woman,” Gwendolyn Brooks never uses the words “happy” and “sad.” Instead, her speaker, the so-called “Crazy Woman” (Line 11), says “gay” (Line 2) and “gray” (Line 4). These terms serve as synonyms for “happy” and “sad” and point to one of the poem’s central themes: happiness versus sadness.

The crazy woman is crazy because she does not want to sing a song in May. For the speaker, May equals happiness, as May brings warm weather, sunshine, bloom, and numerous other delightful sights often linked to springtime. Thus, the woman intends to “wait until November” (Line 3) to use her voice. This is when the woman will sing her song since the November atmosphere links to the kind of song she wants to sing, which is “a song of gray” (Line 4). Gray is not a bright color, and November is not a sunny time of year—it is a season where plants die, trees lose their leaves, and everything closes up for the winter. This change in season, while natural, can signify sadness, and even death, after a vibrant spring and summer. In the poem, November brings the theme of sadness to the forefront.