We Real Cool
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a rhythmic poem that mimics a singsong-y vibe of smooth jazz. It is very different from the other poems by how it is written and devised, as in the couplets the speaker indents to another line while the sentence is on going. Each of the lines ends with 'we' and if not it is easy to pick off a shift in the poem. This intention makes the rhyme scheme extremely noticeable, as the reader is forced to take a pause and take emphasis on the rhyme, almost like: 'we--Lurk late. We--Strike straight'. At the beginning there is an introductory phase of lines 1 and 2 where the speaker establishes the 'we' in this poem are pool players. This is introductory phase is made obvious by the shift that follows when the poem starts using 'we' at the end of every line; however, at the end there is another shift, the line only consisting of, "die soon," creating a dire tone, since the rhythm is thrown off without the 'we' and the nice almost happy rhythm stops. The tone becoming dire reveals a theme in this cool lifestyle that there is a price for living 'cool'. The life the pool players live is more of a fun lifestyle by drinking gin, staying up late, and leaving school earlier because 'they real cool'. The purpose of this poem is almost to say living recklessly with your life by trying to be cool is idiotic.
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