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A little learning poem analysis
Analysis of poems
Analysis of poems
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The poem “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, was published in 1960. Brooks was an African American woman born in 1917 in Topeka, Kansas and raised in Chicago, Illinois. This poem is one with powerful messages behind it. The poem describes dropping out of school and how that action makes the poem characters feel cool, but they will not make it in the long run. Being cool by living an uncontrolled lifestyle at an immature age, most teenagers may choose the wrong path and ruin their own futures. Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem helps the community understand that adolescents need to stay on the right path. She has created deeper meaning in the poem with great purposes, full techniques of rhymes, upbeat tone, and certain themes by conveying the idea of …show more content…
the mental projection of destiny. In the poem “We Real Cool”, Brooks has written great purpose to warn teenagers that they are not making the right choice. Brooks illustrates that the troubled adolescents will eventually succumb to the ill-fated possibility that life renders human beings, while they engage in the lifestyle of the street which inevitably leads to death. In the poem “We Real Cool,” Brooks describes the character of a group of black teenagers who are playing pool in the Golden Shovel. This poem conveys a positive mood and perceives through the seven young pool players at the Golden Shovel who try to be cool at their young age. These seven adolescent pool players are not aware of the importance of their education and have no sense of themselves which will lead them to their downfall. Brooks uses techniques full of rhyme and music.
There is alliteration in the poem like “Lurk late,” “Strike straight,” “Sing sin,” “Jazz June,” and “Thin gin.” Alliteration makes the poem language memorable and musical. Beside this alliteration, there are also many rhymes that can be seen in this poem such as cool/school, sin/gin, the repetitive “We,” and a full stop in the middle of the line. Rhyme scheme of the poem is AA BB CC DD. Rhyme is regularly inseparably attached to frame as well. For instance, those rhymes in the poem built into her stanza, contributed to the major defining characteristics and meter. A grace note is a short note that gets squeezed in before a beat that is mostly used in musical terminology. For the rhyme and music of this poetry, Brooks does a great …show more content…
job. Therefore, the general tone of the poem is very upbeat and optimistic, while the poem presents a dark situation in the community. However, the unpleasant tone at the end of the poem dramatically states that "We die soon." While the other lines present a chilling atmosphere, and makes them appear arrogant, the last line alone is vulnerable or apathetic and firmly cements their future. For the word choices, Brooks uses lots of meaningful phrases such as “We sing sin,” “We thin gin,” and “We jazz June.” The word “Jazz” is a well-known as a popular music of the time for the African American community, or in slang, the word means sexual intercourse. Chicago is one of the cities that play a major role in the rise of jazz as an art form. “June” is about the summer of life or the time that most of the students are off from schools. There is no academic writing in this poem because the author uses slang words for the public and mostly African American community. For the theme of the poem, in the phrase “Seven at the Golden Shovel” a connection can be loosely inferred that “Seven” is representative of both, the amount of people that carry a coffin in the funeral ceremony and the deceased one that resides in the coffin that is later placed in the earth. “Seven” is also considered as being a lucky number, and the “Shovel” being a piece of equipment used to dig a grave in the earth that relates to death, funeral, and later burial. Moreover, the word “golden” culturally represents prosperity and happiness, similar to how the adolescent boys are feeling. Brooks implies this in the last line “We die soon,” which makes us feel a sense of shock. However, Brooks tries to describe the action of the adolescents in the present bleakness with the placement of the words “Left school,” “Lurk late,” “Sing sin,” “Thin gin," "Jazz June," and “Die soon.” Throughout this poem, Brooks conveys the message to the readers through the passages that leaving school, experiencing drugs, using alcohol, spending their time out late, and enjoying jazz can lead them to the eventuality of a protracted life, as can be seen at the end of the poem which says, “We die soon.” In fact, teenagers who have been struggling with their hurtful past have felt abandoned by society.
Their abandonment leads them to all this self-destructive behavior, even though teenagers try to fit themselves into their community to show others that they are just as
equal. The poem “We Real Cool” is an impressive piece. It has a profound implication that dropping out of an institution like school that provides knowledge and living a carefree lifestyle as a dropout will lead to an unfortunate end such as death. Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem helps the community understand that adolescents need to stay on the right path. Brooks does an excellent job with this poem, and she gets to a bright point in a dark atmosphere to enhance the experiential knowledge of the African American community.
The alliteration used is to emphasize rhythm in the poem. On the other hand, the poet also depicts a certain rhyme scheme across each stanza. For example, the first stanza has a rhyme scheme of this manner a, b, c, d, e, a. With this, the rhyme scheme depicted is an irregular manner. Hence, the poem does not have a regular rhythm. Moreover, the poet uses a specific deign of consonance, which is present in the poem (Ahmed & Ayesha, p. 11). The poet also uses the assonance style depicted in the seventh stanza, “Seven whole days I have not seen my beloved.” The letter ‘o’ has been repeated to create rhythm and to show despair in the poem. On the second last line of the seventh stanza, the poet uses the style of consonance, “If I hug her, she’ll drive illness from me. By this, the letter ‘l’ is repeated across the line. The poet’s aim of using this style of Consonance is to establish rhythm in the poem and add aural
...an see, there are many reasons why children and teenagers may misbehave. They could be tired, hungry, sick or just scared of the position they're in. There could be problems at home with family, fighting, and competition, and attention seeking within society. Children are easier to understand to why they misbehave but when it comes to teenagers it’s a little ridiculous. They will make lousy decisions that can cause a rough road ahead of them all because they want to be noticed. It’s unpleasant to see what this society has come too.
The poem, We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks speaks through the voice of a young clique who believes it is “real cool.” Using slang and simple language to depict the teenage voice in first person, Brooks’s narrators explain that they left school to stay out together late at night, hanging around pool halls, drinking, causing trouble, and meeting girls. Their lifestyle, though, will ultimately lead them to die at a young age. But, despite an early death, the narrator expresses that they are “real cool” because of this risky routine. Through her poem, Brooks’s shows the ironic consequence of acting “cool”: it leads to death.
The poem “We Real Cool” is the story of young kids, possibly teens, who are rebellious, uneducated, and arrogant. It states: “We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.” (l.1-8) The poem talks about the pool players and their lives. It seems as though the pool players are school aged because the poet says, “We left school.” (l.1-2) This line shows how they have no interest in school or learning. Since they choose to ditch school, they are most likely uneducated or immature therefore, their behavior throughout the poem, is not too surprising.
"We Real Cool" is a short, yet powerful poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that sends a life learning message to its reader. The message Brooks is trying to send is that dropping out of school and roaming the streets is in fact not "cool" but in actuality a dead end street.
Many fall into peer pressure that's because of the friends they come across with. Friends can influence them so much once becoming an adult it isn’t the same because your brain has grown out of it. Many also lack confidence while many look like adults their brain resembles a child’s. While their bodies are aging their brain is rearranging itself in a way that temporarily makes it act the same way it did when they were younger. Most teens are overly emotional studies have found that teens have a much harder time speaking and to other people and so they sometimes react irrationally to emotional situations. Many parents wonder what happens to the smart child they use to have many still put in the exact same effort but get different results that's because the brain losses tissue over the years. Losing brain tissue can cause a teen to act immature and not quite like an adult
The first literary device that can be found throughout the poem is couplet, which is when two lines in a stanza rhyme successfully. For instance, lines 1-2 state, “At midnight, in the month of June / I stand beneath the mystic moon.” This is evidence that couplet is being used as both June and moon rhyme, which can suggest that these details are important, thus leading the reader to become aware of the speaker’s thoughts and actions. Another example of this device can be found in lines 16-17, “All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies / (Her casement open to the skies).” These lines not only successfully rhyme, but they also describe a woman who
...ration, onomatopoeia, rhyme etc. One of the sound types I will be looking at is Full or perfect rhyme. This sound type is significant as in Dulce Et Decorum Est at the end of each sentence rhymes with the one before the last. This is significant as when reading this poem you notice this rhyming scheme and take more time to stop and ponder over the significance of the language it is based around and what connotations that word has: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs”. This is one of the most effective rhyming schemes in the poem. Due to every second line rhyming this makes your remember what the poet was trying to put across in the previous lines as all the different lines have a way of tying in with one another.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
Written in iambic form, the meter alternates from tetrameter to trimeter, which when incorporated with quatrain creates the same form and verse as that in “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, / that saved a wretch like me.” Although the poem lacks much rhyme, the speaker rhymes “me”, “immortality”, and “eternity” to reinforce her description of life after death. In the fourth stanza, the speaker seems to stumble or have a lapse in concentration, realizing that she is in the process of dying, as she uses slant rhyming, reverses the meter, and has a misstep in form, such as in, “The Dews drew quivering and chill—,” (line 14). The meter and form returns to normal in the next stanza as the speaker recovers from this realization and it remains normal
The first language feature we come across is the repetition of the words ‘out of’ and ‘into’. The phrases being repeated help to link past and present. The first stanza repeats ‘Out of…’ This talks about Grace’s ancestry, i.e. coming out of before her time. The second and third stanza ‘Into…’ is about her life and her past. Grace lived in the Caribbean and moved to England so the ‘into’ refers to her life experiences.
Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” explores the lives of rebellious teenage kids who are only defined by their action. Their actions are due only because of the teenage kids being together and wanting to prove their rebellion to each other. The underlying theme throughout this poem is the identity of these teenagers together and that their individual identities are slowly being stripped because of themselves; which puts them on a different ends of society’s expectations of the teenagers vs what they want to do with their young lives.
Edgar Allen Poe’s alliteration and repetition of words support the poem’s flow and musicality. Poe begins with the alliteration of the m sound in “merriment” and “melody” (3). The soft m sound, also known as a liquid consonant, helps to keep a quick and continuous pace for the poem. Similarly, the alliteration of the s sounds in sledges, silver, stars, and seem, emphasize the calming sounds of the bells (1-2, 6-7). The s sound helps express the soothing and comforting effects of the bells, essentially contributing to the merry tone of the poem. Furthermore, the alliteration of t...
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.
Why do teenagers rebel against their parents? Teenagers rebel against their parents because they lack their parents’ love and they start to build up resentment. (Bucknell) As they are growing up, they are developing their minds and trying to adapt to their surroundings. Despite some negative thoughts about teens, many create their sense of rebellion due to the lack of ideal parents. They begin to think for themselves and go down the wrong path without the right guidance. For instance, without the right guidance the teenager feels that they are the adults in every situation and they know what is right and what is wrong. They begin to develop habits that will later lead to unsuccessful situations. During teenage years, many are going through