My first poem "We real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks seems to sum up the reality that many youths faced during the time in which this poem was written. Brooks wrote this poem in 1959 which coincided with the Civil Rights movement. After the case Brown v. Board of education ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools a lot of African Americans became frustrated. A large number of youth started to question their role in society. The opening of the poem (which I didn't post however it is said in the video post) is very significant. It points out seven young men at pool hall named the Golden Shovel. Just from the opening we can detect that seven young men probably represent a gang of some kind, and the name "Golden Shovel" may represent the young males and their short life expectancy. After reading the rest of the poem my first observation was her Brooks use of first person point of view.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
She also uses a bit of irony in the first stanza; the boys claim to be cool because they left school although it isn't cool at all. Her diction reiterates the fact that the boys are uneducated. Each of the couplets in the poem rhyme: "cool and "school", "late" and "straight", "June" and "soon", which creates a melodic tone. The whole poem sounds like a song which makes it memorable. In addition to the musical style of the poem, Brooks also starts each new line with the second word of the sentence--
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Which is also memorable. The simplicity of the poem leaves the reader searching for deeper meaning.
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