At the Golden Shovel

My first speaker poem is We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks, which you can find on page 879-80 of the Norton.

I chose this poem because in its simplicity, it conveys a very powerful and modern message even though written in 1950. The speaker and his or her attitudes and opinions are very clear and noticably different from that of the poet.

The short, halting sentences and the speaker's diction support the picture painted of the speaker: one of a group of young kids, drop outs, just hanging around at the pool hall enjoying themselves. The way the speaker plainly lists what they do shows that the don't really care one way or another about it or about the reader knowing, lending a laid-back sense of bravado. Since the speaker is one of the pool players as opposed to an onlooker, the lifestyle starts to entice the reader, and they feel sympathetic towards the speaker. However, the last sentence, "We/die soon," introduces a chilling reality that is relevant today. This part marks Brooks' voice coming through and allows the reader to step back and reevaluate why they thought the speaker so cool in the first place.

Another aspect of this poem I found interesting was the repetition of the word "we" and its placement at the end of (almost) every line. The speaker talks of "we," but in doing so emphasizes the group and the potential lack of individuality in it. Together as a group, the pool players are "cool," but on their own they might not be as cool and need the others to give them a sense of purpose. This takes the bravado seen in the poem as a whole and adds a sense of vulnerability, which also shows the reader that the speaker might not be as cool as they once thought.

Gwendolyn Brooks reading "We Real Cool"