...It is evident that the poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1960) is a group of school age kids that are living on the “edge” so to speak. They leave school to go play pool, drink, and just be carefree with no concern of their education or their safety. Brooks (1960) used the words, “We Sing sin. We Die soon” which implies that they will die at an early age because of the life style they live it suggest they are living day by day on the street. The tone and irony are two literary devices used in this poem. The tone in the beginning is somewhat uplifting, but then quickly becomes saddened at the end when death is suggested. The other would be irony which is used many times throughout the poem. Brooks (1960) uses “SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL”, to set the scene of the poem. The word seven and golden usually implies lucky and money. The irony used: a pool hall would not normally be golden, it is usually very dark and a shovel usually brings hard work to mind and they are using a pool stick that doesn’t require any hard work. Just fun and games. The literary devices chosen implied that they have no real direction in their lives and no concern what so ever of their education or even themselves. Listening to the poem read aloud gives a whole different meaning in my thoughts and is so beneficial. Gwendolyn Brooks gives an introduction of the reading before she reads the poem aloud and explains why she wrote the poem. She saw these boys in passing of a pool...
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...Writing about Literature –Com 1102 September 28, 2011 “We Real Cool” “We Real Cool” is a very short poem that can have a different meaning and theme depending on the reader. I did some background information on Gwendolyn Brooks, the author of this poem, and I realized that knowing some of her background information really helps the reader. By knowing this information the reader can understand and appreciate her poem and its message. During a public reading Mrs. Brooks is known for saying, “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 asked myself, ‘I wonder how they feel about themselves?’ and just perhaps they might have considered themselves contemptuous of the establishment…” (Shmoop Editorial Team) This quote helps the reader understand the thought process of Brooks and helps define the general message of how the boys were wasting their time. “We Real Cool” has astoundingly only a subtitle and eight lines. The first sentence we read which is the subtitle says, “The Pool Players. /Seven at the Golden Shovel.” (860) Brooks starts the poem by introducing seven pool players at a local pool hall called the “Golden Shovel”. (860) I found the name of the pool hall intriguing because it means much more than a shovel that is gold. Gold can imply...
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...Rap Culture in Comparison to the Tone of Hughes and Brooks Today it is hard to get into a car and turn on the radio without hearing a song about money, sex, or fame. Modern day rap culture tries to force those three things on our population through their music and lyrics. They have changed many people’s perception of the perfect life through their tone, music, and lyrics. Many poems help express and can relate to the tone of the modern day rap culture. The tone in the poems, “Red Silk Stockings” by Langston Hughes, and “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, can be tied to the tone in rap culture and express many modern American values. Rap culture in the twenty first century has exponentially grown and in turn has influenced daily American live. Today, everyone is exposed to this new rap culture that is developing everywhere. Rap culture started in about the 1970’s in New York City (Sullivan). In those days rap was about everyday life and race but has greatly change since then. Rap songs these days are all about sex, money, drugs, women, cars, and practically any material thing. Many songs talk about how rich the rappers are and the extravagant ways they live. Most songs in rap culture have poor grammar and language. These songs are crude and talk about women only as sex. The view points of modern day rappers are extremely clouded because of what they talk about and how they live. The tone of the Hughes and Brooks poems help to show the tone and expression of modern day rap culture...
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...2015 Tarnished Gold Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African- American female poet to win the Pulitzer Prize and went on to serve as the U.S Poet Laureate from 1985-1986. Among Brooks’ many works is the short poem; “We Real Cool” which sums up the reality that youths will have to face if they lose school. “We Real Cool” was written during the Civil Rights Movement in 1959, a period of great segregation. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools in the case of Brown vs Board of Education, however segregation was still prominent in society and this frustrated many African- Americans. Aside from separation, the effects of Segregation caused a lot of black youths to lose sight of their role in society and what it meant to have a bright future. By being told that they do not belong numerous times, being victims of prejudice and being treated as inferior they began to impact their outlook on life. Consistently being told that they have no future led youths to believe that it was nothing more than a false pretense, as seen in the boys who seem to be struggling with identity. Anyone who has ever played hooky can relate to “We Real Cool”, instead of attending school seven young men decide to hang out at a bar and play pool. Brooks is attempting to send a message through her poem and she accomplishes this through the use of symbolism and word choice. According to Gwendolyn Brooks, one day as she was walking through her Chicago...
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...American Gwendolyn Brooks. The three elements that I found interesting in this poem will be reviewed. The elements are image, tone, and symbol. I will explain how these elements affected my response to the poem all together. In addition also explain my reaction to the contents of this short poem. Along with clarifying if these elements caused me to focus on just one aspect of this poem over other poems. When I first read this short poem. I was baffled as to what it meant. I reread it several times and still cold not comprehend what it meant. Then I listened to the We Real Cool speech given by the author of The Pool Players Gwendolyn Brooks. She goes on describing how she was inspired to write this poem. Brooks goes on to explain how one day she was walking in her community one afternoon during school time. As Brooks was passing by a pool hall she saw a seven little boys shooting pool in that pool hall. “ Seven boys in a pool during school time. The pool players, seven at the Golden Shovel”, (Flynn, Richard, 2000, "The Kindergarten of New Consciousness": Gwendolyn Brooks and the Social Construction of Childhood). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2901386. “ Brooks goes on to explain instead of asking herself, why are they not in school? She asked herself , I wonder how they feel about themselves? Did they consider themselves to be contemptuous of the pool hall? Brooks goes on to describe that it was the month of June. A month everyone loves”,(, Gwendolyn Brooks , 1960...
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...poets who have set the bar pretty high for upcoming poets. Gwendolyn Brooks poems present different voices and characters in each poem she writes. Each is encountered with different problems she found important or controversial that she usually has witnessed take place in her own life. Brooks demonstrates different voices depending on which topic shes discussing in the piece and what character she feels would portray the topic the best. Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansa, but then moved to Chicago at a very young age. She grew up with very supportive parents who always pushed her to try her best, and although they were not the wealthiest family, they stayed positive and very close. When Brooks was old enough to attend high school she attended 3 different schools. Hyde Park High School, which was the leading white school in her city, then she transferred to an all black school, Wendell Phillips, and lastly, the integrated Englewood High School (“Blacks”.)...
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...Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. She was the first child of her parents, David and Keziah Brooks. When Brooks was six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, which Brooks considers her home town. At the age of seven, Brooks' gift in writing was discovered and her mother encouraged it by introducing her to different types of literature. Her parents were otherwise strict and Brooks was not allowed to play with the other children in her neighborhood. She spent the majority of her free time reading and writing in her room. Brooks, for this reason was incredibly shy even as an adult and lacked social skills, making few friends at school. Brooks attended several schools, including an all-white high school, (Hyde Park High School) before transferring to an all-black high school (Wendell Phillips). She eventually was transferred again to an integrated school (Englewood High School). In 1936 she graduated from Wilson Junior College. Her different schools gave her a view of the racial dynamic which she used in her writing. Her early works appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper primarily for the black citizens of Chicago. In 1939 Brooks married Henry Blakely. The couple had two children, Henry Jr. and Nora. In 1945 Brooks published her first book, A Street in Bronze Ville and in 1949 she published Annie Allen, a book of loosely connected poetry about growing up African American in Chicago. She received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in...
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...simply because it opens up with portraying the ultimate scene of seven boys who surrounded a pool hall which was named the Golden Shovel. This line exposes the actual scene which the play had represented certain small gang who were in need of luck in order to achieve certain goal in their lives. Also the content of the play seemingly interested as result of implication whereby it implies the youngness of the players (Brooks, 1959). The poem`s content also exposes the certain illegal activities which were practiced by the boys discussed. What interested me are narrator words when exposing the facts by use of secret word “Lurk late” which shows that, a certain activities were taking place in the dark. The identification shows that, too much exposure to darkness makes somebody to be what he or she ought to be. The narrator uses the word “strike straight” showing that, the boys where seemingly trying to do something menacing. Perhaps, they committed crimes, rapes and murder as well since they were all undergoing through a rite of passage in their development (Brooks, 1959). The form of the poem “the pool players” was identified to have been determined by Colloquial rhythm (Haikus type of poem) the narrator tried to catch from the readers. The element of Bravado within the poem portrays the activities of street boys which the seemed to sound defensible besides desirable. The form of the poem identifies the folk type in which a certain impression may be approachable in monosyllabic...
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...March 18, 2014 A Breakdown of Two Small But Powerful Poems Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” poem and Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” are ten lines or less but are poems that are extremely powerful and influential. Robert Frost talks about death but if the world ended, how would an individual want to die. Would an individual rather die by burning to death or being frozen to death? Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem is about a group of young black men who have no potential or future. All in all these poems have a vivid sense of imagery, an inspirational theme, and an odd rhyme scheme and meter. Although these two poems have two completely different subjects, they make you think and actually begin to questions certain aspects of life. In Brooks’ she sets the scene along with her characters and setting before even starting the poem. She lets know the characters are seven pool players, at the Golden Shovel. The Golden Shovel is a metaphor for these teenagers digging their own grave, when they’re supposed to be having fun, because they’re in their golden years. In lines 2-4 of her poem she talks about how the teenagers dropped out of school, stay out late, and that they commit crimes head on. This is a great example of imagery, because one can easily imagine young African-American kids not having anything to do after they dropped out of school and start to do illegal things. Therefore Brooks’ gave a great name for the setting, the Golden Shovel because these teenagers are literally digging their...
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...2052) or rime, which is when two or more words that contain identical or similar vowel sound (Kennedy and Gioia, 2074). In the two pieces “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the poets use a combination of rime, rhythm and meter to get the poem’s meaning across. The poem “We Real Cool” uses rhythm, the pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem, to get across the poet Gwendolyn Brooks’ theme. “We Real Cool” is about a group of boys that should be in school but decide to skip to go do something that is considered “cool”. Brooks uses an imitative tone while simultaneously, questioning of a group of the boys in a pool hall’s lives. Questions come up like “What are they doing here?” and “Shouldn’t they be in school?” but the bigger question is how do they feel about their lives. The poem implies the message that the boys in this pool hall are unhappy with their everyday lives, so they feel the need to pretend to be something else, something “cooler”. By using certain elements of sound Brooks shows the readers that she believes that these boys in the pool hall are trying to be something they are not. The poem also gives the reader a feeling of nostalgia. It brings the reader back to a time when they were younger and reminds them of the times that they tried to be something they were not. Brooks uses elements of sound like internal rime and meter to imitate how she believes that the boys would sound while talking about their activities. In lines...
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...decision for it is her sacrifice to have a child and not theirs. Abortion should not be as controversial as it because not every person that becomes pregnant can properly care for the child due to lack of funds. It is not cold-blooded murder; a mother does not take the decision lightly to abort her unborn child and society needs to be more understanding of how the mother feels before passing their judgment. The poem “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks expresses some of the feelings that a would-be mother endures when facing the difficulty of aborting her unborn child and analyzing my research on the emotional burden women face when having an abortion sheds light on the subject and helps me better understand what Gwendolyn Brooks is expressing in her poem. Abortion is never a decision that is made lightly. A would- be mother weighs out all her options before taking such a life changing decision. A mother realizes what her decision means; she realizes that she will never forget making the decision and never know what her baby would grow up to be. Gwendolyn Brooks writes “Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get. The damp small pulps with a little or with not hair, The singers and workers that never handled the air.” (“The Mother” Lines 1-4) this show that the would be mother fully thinks about what she is giving up before making the decision to have an...
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...Poem Analysis “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks portrays a fasting living life and dying young. It talks about rebellious youngsters who are not fond of attending school so skip and find solace and pleasure at a pool. This poem holds the whole lives of a teenage gang, from their coolness to their demise. It could be a motto, it could be a song, a chant, a lyric rage against the powers that be. It has end rhyme and internal rhyme which is technically full – cool and school, sin and gin and the repetitive we; this is rhyme that binds together the brotherhood of the gang. The poem is not too long to induce boredom. The tone is one of defiance and stubborn allegiance to the gang. This is a group...
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...The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks There are a good number of issues in the world that stand unsolved. The debates on some of them are on for ever and ever but a feasible solution has never risen in the horizon. The most prominent among these perennial issues is abortion. It is a topic that has been subjected to serious debate across all the parts of the world. However, so far we have arrived at a convincing answer to believe abortion to be secure and justified or as a heinous crime of the humanity. We have mixed responses, as the topic sways between religious and social perspectives. Gwendolyn Brooks in her poem “Mother” pays tribute to the unborn souls, whose lives were brought to an end by abortion. She begins the poem by addressing the mothers, who have been subjected to abortions. She say that though the mothers have aborted children but the memory of those unborn ones will never fade away from their memory. “The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair, The singers and workers that never handled the air”. Mothers can not forget these little ones that they carried for awhile. Brooks is very creative in her presentation of the concept. She says that as the children aborted were not given a chance to realize their full potentialities, the world can not be sure of what they would have become, if you were allowed to grow. Hence, she calls them as ‘singers and workers’. A touch of satire and irony is very much seen in her presentation of the topic. She says that these...
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...There are many images and word choices in “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks that convey the tone of the poet toward the theme of her subject matter-abortion. The poet uses varying points of view to convey the complexity of the issue being discussed, and the tone therefore becomes a complex thing in itself. Within the poem there is a tone of didacticism, censure, accusation, and understanding that is portrayed through the voice of the poet. The use of the pronoun “you” at the beginning of the poem universalizes the audience for whom the poem is intended, and makes it less personal. The poet is speaking directly to you, and its effect is a tone that is almost accusatory. YOU will not be able to forget. YOU will “remember the children that you got that you did not get”. The poet uses a paradox with the previous line to comment on the miracle of life, the wonder of conception. “The children that you got” was the life growing in the mother’s womb, and the mother got a child, she was carrying that miracle inside of her until she decided not to carry it through. She got a child, but she did not get it in the end. So despite the miracle, the mother has thrown it away. The poet shifts the tone to a graphic, uncomfortable feeling with a description of what an aborted fetus usually looks like, “damp small pulps with a little or with no hair”, and draws an almost didactic contrast between the dead and the potential lives of the fetuses, “the singers and workers that never handled the air...
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...identify with; stories that allow us to associate ourselves with the characters, see the story through their eyes, put ourselves in their shoes, feel their pain, and celebrate their victory. Good literature fully explores the depths and aspects of humanity through empathy, morality, madness, vulnerability, and pride. The White Troops Had Their Orders, but the Negros Looked Like Men by Gwendolyn Brooks exemplifies empathy through the white troop meeting the black troops, likely slaves, for the first time. The poem starts us off by showing how the white men had been trained to look at the black men. They had been given the formula on how to treat them until their empathy sets in after seeing the black troops for the first time. “But when the Negros came they were perplexed. These Negros looked like men” (Brooks, 2495). In fact, they appreciated the similarities so much, they didn't have the time or frame of mind to worry about the differences they were trained to look down upon. “Besides, it taxed Time and the temper to remember those Congenital iniquities that cause Disfavor of the darkness” (Brooks, 2495). There were also two different boxes, or coffins, for the white and black troops if they were killed in battle. Obviously the white troops were to get the nicer coffins, but they ended...
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