Beckonings exemplifies Brooks' movement toward her new style, which is characterized by a struggle between her normal tendency to make each word bear its full measure of weight and suggestion and an insistence upon directness and simplicity of diction. Actually, despite her reputation for complexity, there are already many poems across the body of her work which are simple and direct. A Street in Bronzeville contains a large number of simple poems, some of which become favorites with readers. I would suppose the main difficulties for the uninitiated readers in some earlier poems would be the presence of irony and understatement.

Beckonings reduces the element of irony and often goes into direct statement. The poem in memory of her brother Raymond Brooks maintains directness, but in its second verse deliberately slows us into thoughtfulness, although no unusual words occur.

     He knew how to put paint to paper—
     made...