We Real Cool Poem Meaning

Anybody defines the notion of "absurd" as something unlike. For some people, existence cool is divers by clothes, social status, or a feeling of satisfaction. For others, existence cool is challenging authority. In Gweldolyn Brooks's poem, "We Existent Absurd," (1960) the audience learns that sometimes appearing cool and feeling cool are two unlike things. Can you lot think of a time when you told others you were doing alright, simply felt panicked or worried on the inside?

Nosotros Real Cool at a Glance

Verse form	"Nosotros Existent Cool"
Written	Gwendolyn Brooks
Published	1960
Construction	A subtitle and 4 couplets, using only single-syllable words
Poetic devices	Symbolism, diction, enjambment, alliteration, internal rhyme
Tone	Assertive, arrogant
Theme	Rebellion

Gwendolyn Brooks, a instructor, poet, and author, was built-in in Topeka, Kansas. Topeka is famous for the landmark instance of Brownish vs. The Lath of Didactics, in which racial segregation in schools was ruled unconstitutional, and equally a teacher herself, Brooks valued education. Much of her writing focuses on black identity, solidarity, and pride. Her skill equally a poet is featured in her power to express the internal struggles of her subjects. Gwendolyn Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poesy in 1950, and has the distinction of existence the outset African-American to earn that recognition.

We Real Cool Summary

"We Real Cool" is a cursory 8-line poem, written in 1959 past Gwendolyn Brooks, and consists only of single-syllable words. It's written in the starting time-person plural using "nosotros", and it's from the collective perspective of 7 youths or "pool players". By using the first-person plural, Brooks gives the rebellious youths a vocalization and lends the poem an element of intimacy. The subjects of the poem are speaking directly to the readers and providing a first-mitt account of their decision.

Identified in the verse form'due south subtitle as "pool players," the individuals have trivial else to do during school hours—implying they are either skipping schoolhouse or they have dropped out—so they spend their fourth dimension at a pool hall called "The Golden Shovel." Lacking piece of work skills and education, the players spend their time loitering, drinking, and singing. The group maintains a collected and cool persona, underscored only by the stark realization that the route they have chosen may end abruptly.

In first-person plural betoken of view, the narrator tells the story using the pronoun "we." Typically, there is no defining identity, and the narrative vox acts as a member of a unified group.

Did y'all know Gwendolyn Brooks began her career as a writer when she was very young? Brooks was first published in a children's magazine as a 13-year sometime. By the time Brooks was sixteen, she had published virtually 75 poems.

We Existent Absurd Poem Total Text

The Pool Players. Seven at the Gilded Shovel.

Nosotros real cool. We

Left schoolhouse. Nosotros

Lurk tardily. We

Strike straight. Nosotros

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die before long."

We Real Cool, Boy Playing Pool, StudySmarter Fig. 1 ‐ The verse form describes a group of youths playing pool inside a pool hall.

We Real Absurd Assay

"We Real Cool" is skillfully written, and the poem expresses the ignorant pride rebellious youths oft exude. Information technology addresses how damaging some decisions may be.

"We Real Cool" Symbolism

The subtitle of the poem, written in all capitals for emphasis, informs the reader that in that location are seven individuals, or puddle players, at the pool hall chosen "The Aureate Shovel." The proper noun of the pool hall carries symbolic significant. A shovel, a common garden tool used for earthworks, is associated with both life, when gardening, and death, when digging graves. A golden shovel is unnecessary and wasteful because it is merely going in the dirt. The proper noun of the hall can represent how the pool players are wasting their time, and literally digging themselves an early on grave by cut their lives short and limiting their options past limiting their education.

Symbolism is a literary device where objects become the physical representation of ideas, emotions, or situations.

We Real Cool, Gold Shovels in Dirt, StudySmarter Fig. two ‐ A golden shovel, which is used to dig or bury something, is excessive, wasteful, and unnecessary.

"We Existent Cool" Diction

The first line of the poem, and title, bear witness the lack of education the players take. Rather than using proper grammar, the believing tone expressed by the pool players when stating "We real cool" in line 1 reveals their ignorance. The uneducated grouping of pool players lacks the skills needed to communicate effectively. Their lack of teaching is further emphasized past their express vocabulary. Each word in the poem is a unmarried syllable, showing the group's limited communication skills. Therefore, the first line of the poem is ironic. The group of individuals is non "cool" (line ane), considering the grouping is not doing too as they say. The pool players' human action of leaving "school" (line 2) has left them with limited options and a bleak future.

The next ii couplets reveal how the players spend their time. Focusing on the verbs shows that the players "lurk" (line 3), "strike" (line 4), "sing" (line 5), and "thin" (line six). The acts of lurking and striking indicate the players are mischievous. Although they "sing" (line 5), which can indicate happiness, they are singing of "sin" (line v), showing over again that they may be spending their time committing offenses. The succinct verbs and casual diction Brooks employs reveals the limited communication skills, minimal opportunities, and dour future the players face. The succession of short verbs visually represents the idea the pool players take sold themselves curt and given upwards before understanding their true potential.

A couplet is two lines of poetry within a poem grouped together. It is usually indicated by visual blank spaces on the page, only can also be identified by a common topic, meter, or rhyme scheme.

How would your newspaper analyzing diction in "We Existent Absurd" reveal one of the messages you have identified in the poem?

"We Real Cool" Enjambment

Brooks'due south apply of enjambment, or the continuation of a sentence from ane line to the next without punctuation, pushes the reader forward through the poem and creates an incomplete feeling. Much like the players' incomplete education, or lack of direction, the enjambment in lines one-7 leaves the audience searching for an catastrophe. The subjects of the poem take lost their way, and the structure of the poem mirrors that lack of direction by providing incomplete thoughts through enjambment.

"Nosotros Real Absurd" Alliteration and Internal Rhyme

The alliteration throughout the verse form with phrases like "lurk late" (line three), "strike straight" (line 4), "sing sin" (line 5), and "jazz June" (line 7) phonetically link ideas together and gives the verse form a musical entreatment. Coupled with the internal rhyme such every bit "absurd" and "school" (lines ane-ii), "belatedly" and "straight" (line 3-4), "sin" and "sparse" (lines 5-6), and "June" and "soon" (lines 7-8) in each couplet, the structure creates a feeling reminiscent of jazz music—a genre that African-Americans can easily identify with.

Ingemination is the repetition of the same consonant sound in ii or more words on the same line or almost 1 some other in a poetry.

Internal rhyme is when words in the center of a line rhyme with words at the terminate of the line or in the center of the next line.

Why practise you think Brooks may have purposely made the poem mimic the sounds and rhythm of a jazz song?

Nosotros Existent Cool Tone

The terminal line of the poem, "[d]ie soon" (line 8) brings the verse form full circle, returning to the shovel and death. The tone shifts abruptly from existence assertive and big-headed to apprehensive and somewhat disillusioned. The pool hall, "The Gold Shovel," where the players spend their days, is a figurative representation of their grave. Whether the death is figurative because the pool players lack viable options for a promising future, or a literal expiry where the rebellious youths continue down a path of destruction, the "golden shovel" from the subtitle proves to be a gateway to demise for the subjects of the poem. Their fourth dimension spent wasting abroad at The Golden Shovel is leading them to an early on grave, which contributes to the disillusioned tone.

We Real Cool, RIP Coffin, StudySmarter Fig. 3 ‐ With few other options after dropping out of schoolhouse, the puddle players foresee an early expiry in a literal or figurative sense.

We Real Cool Theme

"We Real Cool" expresses how rebellion tin can be both empowering and crippling. The pool players in the verse form express a sense of freedom, as they have rejected a system that may not have served their needs or even welcomed them. Just, they likewise feel worry and express a sense of foreboding toward the terminate of the poem, with the collective statement, "[w]e" volition "[d]ie soon" (lines seven-8). Misguided youth and the uninformed decisions they make can have unintended consequences. The youth may accept gained temporary freedom, but will account for their decision to exit school for the residual of their lives, however short. Their act of defiance, considering the social and political turmoil surrounding desegregation and racial discrimination during that fourth dimension period, may have been necessary. However, their lack of direction, limited options, and current lifestyle, is subversive in the nowadays and can have a damaging impact on their futures.

Nosotros Real Cool Pregnant

"We Real Absurd" is a poem about rebellion and the toll people pay in social club to assert themselves and fight systems that don't necessarily fit their needs. The pool players in "We Real Absurd" seem arrogant, but that arrogance turns to disillusion upon the realization that the fun, or their lives, might end soon because of their decisions and actions. The puddle players are only that—players in their own lives. They don't have direction, purpose, or the power to have activity for a better life or state of affairs. They take their aureate shovel—a place that is both a waiting room where they slowly waste material away and the entry to their early graves. They are earthworks their own graves while waiting for a ameliorate life or a unlike option.

Nosotros Real Absurd - Key Takeaways

"We Existent Cool" was written in 1959 and published in 1960.
The poem "Nosotros Real Absurd" is one of Gwendolyn Brooks's most well-known pieces.
The theme of "We Real Cool" expresses how rebellion tin can exist both empowering and crippling.
Brooks uses symbolism, elementary diction, enjambment, alliteration, and internal rhyme to infuse the 8-line poem with pregnant to testify that some decisions can have detrimental effects.
The title of the verse form is ironic because the pool players realize at the finish of the short verse form that their state of affairs is far from ideal.