In “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, one can almost visualize a cool cat snapping his fingers to the beat, while she is reading this hip poem. Her powerful poem uses only a few descriptive words to conjure up a gang of rebellious teens. Brooks employs a modern approach to the English language and her choice of slang creates a powerful jazz mood. All of the lines are very short and the sound on each stop really pops. Brooks uses a few rhymes to craft an effective sound and image of the life she perceives. With these devices she manages to take full control of her rhyme and cultivates a morally inspiring poem.
Brooks’ selection of single syllable words helps set the rhythm of a jazz mood. The monosyllable words provide a rhythmical tool for generating a snappy beat to her tale. Her repetition of rhyming words close together adds unity to the poem. By placing the one syllable words close together: “cool / school” (1-2) and “sin / gin” (5-6), it emphases each word. The feelings and imagery are clear in this poem. The rhyming lines in her verse contain only three words, and it keeps the poem’s rhythm moving. The short verse makes it easy to remember. The short lines speed it up, but the sound on each stop really stands out. Only the subtitle is longer, which Brooks utilizes to encompass the setting. Her careful use of short words keeps the beat and describes what the boys are doing, like leaving school, or staying out late. These simple
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words represent the gang’s lack of language skills. This symbolizes uneducated boys talking. She does it with such vivid verse and ethnic slang that it gives this poem a unique style.
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.
It is very clear that the narrator is aggravated with the ignorance of some people as they assume she is supposed to sound different than she does because she is black. To emphasize her agitation throughout the poem, the narrator asks rhetorical questions such as; "Was I supposed to sound lazy, dropping syllables here, there, not finishing words but slurring the final letter so that each sentence joined the next, sliding past the listener? Were certain words off limits, too erudite, too scholarly for someone with a natural tan? And Does everyone in your family speak alike?"
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly.
When I read poetry, I often tend to look first at its meaning and second at how it is written, or its form. The mistake I make when I do this is in assuming that the two are separate, when, in fact, often the meaning of poetry is supported or even defined by its form. I will discuss two poems that embody this close connection between meaning and form in their central use of imagery and repetition. One is a tribute to Janis Joplin, written in 1983 by Alice Fulton, entitled “You Can’t Rhumboogie in a Ball and Chain.” The second is a section from Walt Whitman’s 1,336-line masterpiece, “Song of Myself,” first published in 1855. The imagery in each poem differs in purpose and effect, and the rhythms, though created through repetition in both poems, are quite different as well. As I reach the end of each poem, however, I am left with a powerful human presence lingering in the words. In Fulton’s poem, that presence is the live-hard-and-die-young Janis Joplin; in Whitman’s poem, the presence created is an aspect of the poet himself.
Since the character is illiterate, he has no ability to determine his true feelings for the loved one. Additionally, this use of repetitive words in the poem also shows the lack of diction by the character. When words are repeated, it typically tells someone that they are either confused or have a weak vocabulary. Since it is implied that the man had a small lexicon because of his illiteracy, the poem reveals his ideas in a simplistic and repetitive wording
Just as the surroundings would seem different through color slides, he asks the readers to see the world from diverse viewpoints while reading and writing poems. Moreover, by listening to the poem’s hive, dropping a mouse, and walking inside its room, Collins encourages readers to discover the concealed depth of poetry. He comments that the readers should enjoy the poem in a way they would like to water ski.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Roethke’s poem has a regular rhyme scheme that can be expressed as “abab”. The only exception to this scheme would be the first stanza as the words “dizzy” (2) and “easy” (4) are slant rhymes. Only the end syllables of the two words sound the same. As a result, the use of a consistent “abab” rhyme scheme allows the poem to reflect the
...the reader to think in a different mindset. By creating this mindset Hughes and Brooks communicate thousands of years of black history as the speaker of “The Weary Blues” has the singers blues echo through his head so too do we have the weary thoughts of generations past echo through ours. Their creative use of words creates connection between performer and audience through the style of communication. Hughes doesn’t just use the grief of the singer’s lyrics; he uses the moan of the piano to express sorrow. Brooks doesn’t just ponder the life choices of the young boys; she forces the reader to think from their point of view. Brooks creates a connection between the speaker and the reader through the style of communication. By using these styles Hughes and Brooks prove that creating connections is less about what is said and more about the music that drives the poetry.
“We Real Cool” poem proves you can give a lot of personality and insight to a group of characters in eight lines. With the lines “We real cool, We Left school (Lines 1-2)” it tells us that these kids left school to chase after their perception of cool. The poet reveals the fact that these boys are also uneducated, rebellious and arrogant. This poem will be the prime example of quality.
Meyer compares poems to songs. He says that we have to listen several times a song before we hear it all and before we understand it. The title of a poem provides a sense of what the poem is about. It can tell you about the poem’s subject, tone, and genre. While reading poetry we need to pay attention to elements such as speaker, image, metaphor, symbol, rhyme, and rhythm. Also, Meyer defines doggerel as a “derogatory term used to describe poetry whose subject is trite and whose rhythm and sounds are monotonously heavy-handed”. It is characteristic of children’s game rhymes. In addition, by characterizing poetry as “undefinable” and “unmistakable”, Robinson says that it can have different purposes, subjects, emotions, styles, and forms.
Unfortunately, they are lineated the way they are because these uneducated drop out pool players have a limited vocabulary. Brooks makes great use of rhyme throughout the poem, by using words such as: "cool", "school", "sin", and "gin" (3-8). These are rhymes that appear at the end of lines, while this rhyme scheme compliments the theme, it is directly towards a young audience. Hence, why Brooks is talking about these pool players that are supposed to attend school. The poem has an up tempo beat, very similar to a rap song, making it even more appealing to young readers, as this relates back to the way the poem is lineated and thus, making the poem “cool.” Alternatively, this also refers the poem to a dialect, more specifically an African-American
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.
In Conclusion, Billy Collins use of irony in both the setting and the description of the stereotypical students helped strengthen the allusion of the poem. The students in the poem are in an eternal school lifestyle as opposed to being in a normal town environment. Aspects of the setting, such as the landscape being made out of paper and the night sky being compared to a blackboard painted a descriptive picture in the mind of the reader, making the allusion more believable and relatable. Also, the use of stereotypes in this poem added on to the allusion of the school environment, giving life to the society in the town created by Collins. At first, the poem may seem like only an allusion, but with a closer look, you can see the reality behind it all.
Rhythm helps to move the poem along and keep the reader alert, which is exactly what Forbes is doing. Most poets use rhythm by having certain lines rhyme after each other; which gives the poem a wispy sensation, causing the reader to stay intrigued.
For example, the people in Santa Ana and the surroundings around her . Also, about her losing many people . One of the symbols is the poet uses is “ Schoolyard boys “ . The symbols represents the young men that have died in the early days . Evidence in the poem that suggests this meaning is found in stanza #2 which says “ The schoolyard boys underneath the ground “ . This means that the schoolyard boys died .The author has a upset feeling about it . As a symbol this represents something negative about the city . For example death and gangs in the city
“We knew he’d begun” (Guest, 12) is a line containing a common “e” sound, which helps emphasize the importance of listening to one’s personal decisions. Next, lines with internal rhyme, such as “with a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin”, contain intertwined consonance to draw attention to the meaning of the entire line. The reoccurring “n” sound puts prominence on the cheerful spirit that the character maintains after experiencing a lack of support. Another example of consonance is in the line “it couldn’t be done”. This common “t” sound appears in the title and many lines throughout the poem to show the little impact that these diminishing words had on the main character. The word “chuckle” is an example of onomatopoeia, which adds interest and a dynamic energy to the poem. It also contributes to the dialogue and the art of story telling in the first stanza.