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Harvey Wu
Ms. Harvey
Applied English and Communications Period 1
8 June 2012
Personal Poem Essay: “We Real Cool”
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.
Brooks’s diction in We Real Cool allows her to make a short and simple poem extremely complex. She
writes only twenty-four words, and eight of them are the same: “we.” Her three-word sentences that all contain
one-syllable words speak the voice of a young person who is probably not very educated. Instead of saying “we are
really cool” or “we will die soon,” Brooks’s uses the slang version of these sentences to emphasize the youth of the
narrator. In the poem, she also includes alliteration (lurk late, strike straight, sing sin, Jazz June), assonance (Sing
sin, Thin gin), and constant rhyme (cool school, June soon) to give her poem a beat similar to a rap song. Her poem
would likely attract a younger audience as a result, and hopefully her message would be sent to those same people
who think they are “real cool.”
The attitude of We Real Cool is care-free and also arrogant. The narrators clearly don’t care much for school
or following rules at all. They enjoy a rebellious freedom that defines their “cool” lifestyle. This unconcerned
attitude, however, could also be interpreted as arrogant because the narrators clearly have no respect for rules and
flaunt that disrespect. “We” is the first word in the title and the first line of the poem, in addition to being at the end
of each line. The narrators want everyone to know that they (“we”) are cool because of what they do and so they
should be recognized for it.
Because We Real Cool is so short and to-the-point, it does not have many shifts except for one great shift at
the end: “We Jazz June. We die soon.” The reader envisions these teenagers having fun – going out late, singing,
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drinking, dancing – and then, without any transition, Brooks’s throws her message in the reader’s face: they will
die. There is no gradual release of this idea throughout the poem. Brooks’s intends for the reader to be surprised
and a bit shaken. She wants her young audience to think of themselves doing all of the things her narrators are
doing and then, without warning, force them to envision themselves dying as a result. Her intention is push young
people to think about their own lifestyle and question whether it’s “cool” to die young for fun.
Gwendolyn Brooks’s We Real Cool aims to reach a young audience of readers who can relate to her
narrators, a group of teens in a “cool” clique. Through a strong first person voice with a care-free yet arrogant tone,
she is able to express her theme: living a free and rebellious lifestyle can lead to an early death. Many young people
who live in the way she describes are not aware that the “cool” life is most likely a short one. Brooks uses few
words to express her theme, but each word is chosen wisely to create a rhythmic poem that attracts her target
audience. Through a strong shift at the end, Brooks is able to shock her readers with an ironic message that leaves
them thinking about the poem long after they have put it down. Her intention is that readers will walk away second
guessing their own lifestyle choices.