We real cool? More like I real cool

We Real Cool

by Gwendolyn Brooks


We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We 

Strike straight. We 

Sing sin. We 

Thin gin. We 

Jazz June. We 

Die soon.

I found this poem on a "21 poems worthy of AP Lit" article and I think it is also in that little poetry packet that we sometimes read from, but I do not think that we have done it yet, so I am going to do it. Firstly, this poem makes me happy in a sad way. It creates a sing-songy rhythm that is given a dark tint at the end. There is obviously a ton of repetition in this poem and that is what really creates that rhythmic feeling. It feels like it is some sort of commentary on the rap culture or the general school drop out community. The simple sentence structure, which is as simple as it can get, like grammar at a first grade level, supports this theory. To me, it feels like a bunch of kids who are all jokingly rapping together, but the author of this poem made the lines feel much more serious than just some kids joking around. The seriousness of the lines does not take away from the youth vibe that this poem gives off, but it does skew the readers perception of the presumed kids that are saying all of this. Rather than being some lame kids who are joking around in a classroom, it feels more like a group of kids, almost like a gang, all hanging around somewhere shady where they are trying to earn their street cred or whatever it is you earn for yourself on the street. The format of this poem also creates an unusual pace that is easily changed depending on the way it is read. If you stop at each "we" and pause for a mount, the poem feels and sounds significantly different than if you choose to read through with only small pauses. It makes sense to pause at the "we"s, so assuming that that is the correct reading, the pacing of this poem and the way that the lines are set up makes it seem as though the actions that these kids take part in define who they are. The way that the actions are placed before each of the "we"s places the emphasis on the action, implying that it comes first before the kids do. This is the case in all of the lines except the first one (which is also the title). The line "We real cool." serves to establish what these kids are, what they are trying to prove/support with the following lines, and even how their attitudes are. This is the only line where "we" comes before the action, suggesting that these kids are actually cool and that that is not a statement that is being used as support, its more of a known fact, like the original reason for all of these actions. Just like this first line, the last line also hold some serious weight when considering the meaning of the poem. Looking at only the literal last line of the poem, "Die soon." creates such a dark, gloomy, impending doom type feeling, like it is sure to happen. It also seems to reestablish that the speakers here are kids, they are not meant to be out on the streets like this, they don't yet know how to defend themselves, they are just kids. 

In the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks, the pacing, line structure, and sentence stucture are used to tell the dark story of some kids with no forseeable future, by creating an intense mood and impactful tone.