Poetry Response #3 “We real cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

“We real cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks  

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.

Response: 
The title of this poem is very brief and simple; each word in the title seems to have it’s own weight and gravity. Even the way the title is worded is interesting, and that could be a valid example of syntax.  We usually means more than one person, or a group of people. Real cool is being very cool, or chill and very relaxed. Reminds me of the phrase calm, cool, and collective.

The poem is already written very simply so I didn't paraphrase it in my own words, because I couldn't change the poem without changing the meaning of the poem. While reading I noticed alliterations, an interesting use of syntax, internal rhyme, and ambiguity. The examples of alliteration I noticed are lurk late, strike straight, sing sin, and Jazz June. What’s with every stanza having an alliteration except the first one?

The speaker’s tone is very hopeful which emits a light-hearted mood. The characters around the speaker are the same because the speaker says ‘we’. The writer of the poem is more introspective and serious on the topic of the poem. The poems ends with the very dark line of “We die soon.”

There are mini shifts between lines, and then shifts between stanzas, but every sentence in the poem starts with the word we. The only other noticeable shift is possibly in the speaker's attitude towards the topic and the mood emitted from the attitude. My interpretation of the title didn't change from the initial reading to the last reading. The poem seems to capture a meaning related to life being brief but I don't want to simplify the poem to something simple; the theme of the poem could be that life is brief.