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Analysis of gwendolyn brooks the mother
African american culture and its impact on american culture
An essay on gwendolyn brooks
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Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” (written in 1959 and published in 1960) is a lyric poem that shows a glimpse into the life of seven, young African-American men who have chosen to abandon the social norm of searching for the “American Dream” and, instead, venture into the uncertainty of life roaming the streets (slang for unsavory areas where criminal activity is frequent), where the only certainty is an early death. In a time already plagued with racial hostility, adversity in the lives of young African-Americans was a guarantee, but to freely choose a life without a formal education or employment would add unnecessary hardships. “We Real Cool” utilizes a unique combination of literary vices like point of view, rhythm, and syntax to offer …show more content…
Some lyrical elements used in this poem are rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. The lines of this poem reads like a song, and the syllables enhance that effect. The first line uses four syllables, while every other line (except for the last line) uses three. The last line uses only two syllables, and there is no “we” at the end, which, visually, makes the last couplet look disjointed. However, it connects the first line, which began unusually as well. The link between the two can also be viewed as the overall message of the poem. Line 1 begins and ends with “we,” while line 8 does not use the word “we” at all. It’s possible that the wording on the two lines was intended to show how the each story began with every character, but by the end of the poem, there were not or will no longer be any characters …show more content…
Other than the first line, “we” is always at the end of a sentence, while the action starts off each sentence. The combination would also make the last line a complete sentence. This could be a method to show that the actions of these young men are what define them and not their own individual identities, since their names or personal traits are unknown to the reader. They are simply one of countless scenarios that occur due to the harsh lifestyles they chose to lead, and after they are dead and gone, they are replaced by a group of nameless, faceless young men who are eager to take control of their futures, even if it means doing so in an undesirable fashion. Moreover, if the reader was to add “We” from line 1 to line 8 and combine both lines, they would read “We real cool. / We die soon,” which makes three syllables in each line and makes them equal with every other line. Although, it is a rather dark analysis of an already tragic poem, it can interpret the bleak outlooks of people in Brooks’ community who shared her views on wasted youth due to gang
This week’s reflection is on a book titled Girls Like Us and it is authored by Rachel Lloyd. The cover also says “fighting for a world where girls not for sale”. After reading that title I had a feeling this book was going to be about girls being prostituted at a young age and after reading prologue I sadly realized I was right in my prediction.
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.
Brooks employs more than one rhyming device. She exercises end rhyme in the poem. Brooks’ words rhyme at the end of each sentence. Often in rhymes, the sentence ends with the rhyming word, but not here. The poem’s sentences end in the middle of the line, because Brooks chose to create a metrical pause or caesura. The repetition of “We” at the end, helps to keep the audience focus on the gang. Brooks applies internal rhyme before the end. “We / Sing in. We / Thin gin” (5-6) shows internal rhyme. The gang is proud and boasting about their lives. This conjures up visions of the boys bad choices, but it also helps you see the connection in the lines.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle. This is not the case for the "seven players" in Brooks's poem. After reading the entire poem, the true meaning is revealed. "We Real Cool" focuses on the life of "seven players" who drop out of school. Their daily life is carefree and consists of playing pool, drinking alcohol, and using vulgar language. Brooks elucidates that this "cool" lifestyle only leads to death.
last, which is four lines. In the first three stanzas, the poem is told in
Though the African American community is much more progressive than it was, there are still bits and pieces of the old generation still echoing throughout the new generation. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a great literary example of how the old meets the new and actually parallels certain aspects of life for an African American in many different ways. From parents and previous generations letting siblings know it is their responsibility to look out for one another, especially for the youngest of the bunch, to not fully having the support to chase your dreams because it is not viewed as practical enough are all points that were made in Baldwin’s piece of fiction that are still prevalent today. Though much progress has been made since the days of oppression, oral tradition never dies.
Rhyme-The last words of line one and line three of each stanza rhyme. The last words of line two and line four of each stanza also rhyme. The rhyming words contribute to the rhythm and flow of the poem.
The most noticeable aspect of the structure of the entire poem is the lack of capital letters and periods. There is only one part in the entire forty lines, which is at the very end, and this intentional punctuation brings readers to question the speaker’s literacy. In fact, the speaker is very young, and the use of punctuation and hyphens brings to attention the speaker’s innocence, and because of that innocence, the
I believe that the structure of this poem allows for the speaker to tell a narrative which further allows him to convey his point. The use of enjambment emphasizes this idea as well as provides a sense of flow throughout the entirety of a poem, giving it the look and feel of reading a story. Overall, I believe this piece is very simplistic when it comes to poetic devices, due to the fact that it is written as a prose poem, this piece lacks many of the common poetic devices such as rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and metaphors. However, the tone, symbolism, allusion and imagery presented in the poem, give way to an extremely deep and complicated
Sonny’s Blues paints us a very unsettling but clear picture of what it was like growing up in Harlem circa 1950 and earlier. The housing projects that these brothers grew up in were “rocks in the middle of a boiling sea” (p. 297) ,it is ugly and dangerous. Our narrator tells how it's like an animal trap, if you make it out alive you’ll be missing a part of you. Children living in such environments are forced to grow up so fast for survival, they see movies and read books about all the wonderful things in life, but shortly
The overview of the poem is an amplified skirmish segment amide by two characters. The short poem contains two unnamed characters that will eventually become recognized as foes, thus commencing a dramatic face-to-face showdown. One character shall remain remorseful, through pure moral consciousness, while the other (character) would remain as a cigarette, slowly but surely killing someone in the Inside, without knowing. Through the first stanza, the poet says, "Had he and I but meet"(1), which is elucidating an alternate situation of meeting a different way. The first line
This is an interesting attribute to the poem because generally, poetry and prose are consistent with a sole point of view. The author starts the poem with the word, “We” indicating first person point of view. This helps connect the author with the reader being together in a “long line,” (line 1). This puts the reader with the author, giving them the idea of what it is like to stand and wait, exhausted and “shifting from one foot to another,” (line 7). This makes the reader feel that exhaustion and feel in that moment as well. When Levine uses second person point of view to also bring the reader into the story, so that the reader can experience and feel the same things that the author does. Levine wants the reader to know that work is about waiting, and how “you” are waiting too. It is intended to give the reader a look into how work is about sacrificing a social life and interaction with loved ones to succeed at school, work, and be able to sleep at
Throughout the whole work no punctuations are used, which makes the poem hard to read, and forces the reader to focus on the story, even the smallest details. Although the work seems unorganized, because of the varying lengths of lines, there is a little organization. This relies in the fact that each new major idea starts in a new line with a capital letter, and until the next capital letter there is no new idea.
The rhyme scheme changes a few times throughout the poem. Most frequently the reader notices rhyming couplets. These sometimes use the same number of syllables, but they are not in iambic pentameter; they are often 11 or 13 syllables long, or of differing lengths. The poem concludes with a closed couplet: two successive lines that contain a grammatically complete statement, “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: / Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.” (497).The final word of each of these lines rhymes each one another. The statement is considered “closed” since its meaning is contained within the two lines, and it is within these two lines that the climax of the poem is