This poem is about young school dropouts who make the wrong choices while they are young – ‘Left school’ (line 4), ‘Lurk late’ (line 5), ‘Strike straight’ (line 6) ‘Die soon’ (line 10). The setting could well be in the current, because there are still many school dropouts right now and they could possibly make the same choices as the dropouts in the poem. The larger issue is about the coolness of the school dropouts; they die soon, so are they really that cool as they think they are? In the first stanza the location and school dropouts are described. In the second, third and fourth stanza the choices from the school dropouts are discussed. In the fifth stanza the future of the school dropouts is brought to life.
The first stanza is about the location of the school dropouts – ‘at the golden shovel’ (line 2). The indicating from ‘the golden shovel’ may lead to the name of a café. The first line already illustrates a form of alliteration; ‘The pool players’ - (line 1) refers to ‘We’ in the upcoming lines of the poem.
The second stanza is about the younger years of the school dropouts – ‘We left school’ (line 2). Alliteration is used to describe the school dropouts Brooks is talking about – ‘We’ (line 3-4).
The third and fourth stanza both discuss the lives of the school dropouts; the things they do – ‘Lurk late’ (line 3), ‘We thin gin’ (line 6). In these stanzas alliteration illustrates the characters of the poem; the school dropouts by using ‘We’.
The fifth stanza illustrates the later years of the school dropouts. They have lived a though life and have done illegal deeds – ‘Lurk late’ (line 5). After all these deeds the school dropouts die soon (line 10).
The common idea through this poem is that being cool and popular is great at the beginning but at the end of the day it isn’t. Because you dropped out of school and did illegal things you die soon; there is no future ahead of you. Brooks achieves this by adding the last line ‘We die soon’ to the end of a list of illegal activities, it’s unexpected. After reading this poem, the feeling is that you need to stay who you are and not become cool/popular because at the end of the day it isn’t as great as it seems.
Joyce van Dooren
Vw4b
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