Poem Analysis: We Real Cool By Gwendolyn Brooks

English 104

1 April 2014

" We Real Cool "

" We Real Cool " is about seven African - American high school

dropouts who want everybody else to think they are cool. These teenagers explain how they

stayed out late playing pool, sinning and drinking. Though they think they have everybody else

fooled, they know themselves that the destructive behavior that they are taking part in will lead

too their death. In " We Real Cool ", Gwendolyn Brooks uses denotation and

sound devices to suggest that, although some African - Americans may often think of themselves

as being cool for dropping out of school, they know in truth that dropping out will give them

time
I did some research on Gwedolyn Brooks and came

across the original audio recording of the poetry reading. During the public reading Mrs. Brooks

says, " I wrote "We Real Cool", because I was passing by a pool hall in my community one

afternoon during school time, and I saw, therein, a little bunch of boys. I say there in this poem

seven and they were shooting pool. Instead of asking myself, "Why aren 't they in school?" I ask

myself, " I wonder how they feel about themselves." and just perhaps they might have

considered themselves contemptuous of the establishment....."

" We Real Cool " has astoundingly onlt a subtitle and eight lines.

" We Real Cool. We/ Left School." (545) These are the first and second lines the reader

encounters. The first line supports the title, it echoes the boys outlook of feeling "cool". The

second line of the poem changes th tone of the poem. To some the tone change to being defiant

and rebellious and to others free and adventurous. It depends on how the reader percieves the

poem.The following third and fourth lines endure this defiant or free tone. I felt it was a
The fifth and sixth lines of the poem read, " Sing Sin. We/ Thin Gin.

We." (545) The group of boys remain consistant with the theme and rebellious tone of the

poem. The fifth line, " Sing Sin." This can mean they are singing and enjoying all of the sin they

are they are doing, or it can mean they are singing along with songs about sinful actions. The

sixth line indicates that they are drinking so much liquor to the point where the pool hall has to

thin down the gin to have enough to go around. The final seventh and eighth lines say, " Jazz

June. We/ Die Soon." (545) "Jazz" complements the music theme from the previous lines of

the poem. The reader can envision jazz music in the background, while the boys play, sing, and

snap their fingers along to the music. The final line of the poem gives closure to the composure

of the theme. The boys carefree attitude towards what they are doing with their lives can bring

death upon them sooner than what they would hope for.

This poem is a short choppy story that has alot of meaning between