Essay On "We Real Cool"

Shaquille 2/3/09
Davenport
Essay
Teenagers this time around are concerned about material things and not taking the time to look at the bigger picture in life which are college, work, or their career path. We steady worried about parties and shit, fucking bitches, and our appearance that we don’t realize time is not on our side and it’s our job to jump on the right path and focus on what we need to do. My point exactly, what teenager you know reads poems let alone a book? I’m not the type to sit down and read a poem but when it comes down to it there’s a poet that can relate to what we’re going through. She expresses how she feels by thinking outside the box and not just by saying how she feels like any other person. Three reasons why I am blown away by this poet are, the poem says a lot in a short amount of time, the poem’s funny, and it consistently rhymes throughout the entire passage. This particular poem talks about how you could either go all out and live your life to the fullest and die young, or you could just easily go through life not having any fun fading through. One poem in particular that grabbed my attention and glued my eyes to the paper is, “We Real Cool”. Gwendolyn Brooks expresses powerful messages and real life situations in just literally one paragraph.


One reason why I like this poem is because the author says a lot but only in a few words. That right there draws my attention because the poem’s short. One quote from the poem which is actually the title is, “We Real Cool”. When you hear that quote immediately your probably thinking about two close friends but if you think outside the box like Gwendolyn Brooks then you could probably guess that there are two close friends that has each others back through thick and thin, that will always be there when you need them, that’s honest, and cares about you from the bottom of their heart, then you could start to see where she’s coming from when she says “We Real Cool’’.

Another reason why I am overwhelmed by this poem is because the poem constantly rhymes at the beginning or end of a sentence. I’ve come across poems that rhymes but none of them continues the whole way through the poem. Just the rhyming part alone draws my attention, because if the poem rhymes then I could remember what was said by the author. Another quote from the story that can help prove my analysis is, ‘’We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight.’’ Flawless. Nothing but rhyming and that’s just the intro.

Finally, the last and final reason why I enjoyed this poem is because it’s funny. Nine times out of ten you would have a poem that is serious to the bone and talks about your feelings and death before incorporating the humor side of things. I was just blown away when I read the part about leaving school and dying soon. I thought that was funny and brave because it talks about cutting school and dying which occurs everyday and on the cutting school part she probably was a little taking back because by her saying that she could be persuading people to cut school.

Inconclusion, if you’re looking for a poem that can relate to what’s going on in your life then I would advise you to read Gwendolyn Brooks poems because a little sense of humor and relating to real life situations go together like peanut butter and jelly in my book and the outcome would be tremendous for a poem.