ce and gender" (49). The traditional sonnet offers a glimpse of woman as a mere object of desire. It is a looking glass, which displa!
             ys her beauty and charm. It never speaks openly about the powerful manner in which she utilizes her charm or even how it came about as a result of her own will. The poet uses the sonnet as a birthing ground for the heroic female voice capable of wit and charged with wisdom.
             In her poem the rites for Cousin Vit, Brooks introduces the reader to a woman "whose name signifies life" and the rites that are meant to enfold her permanently. Interestingly, the poem begins mid-action, an act which serves a purpose. Brooks is not concerned here with why women are voiceless creatures, which would lead her to start at the very beginning in order to define its origins. Rather, it seems that the poet is more aptly concerned with the end of the ridiculous ongoing treatment of women in the traditional love sonnet.
             The reenactment of the uprising of the confined female from her longtime burial ground lends the poem its basis for argumentation. Through the longtime ritual act of imprisoning the female, Brooks proclaims a mighty female who refuses to be detained simply because her grace and wit are a pleasure to ponder upon. This woman is much too strong to be made a part of any ri
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