We real cool: language and identity in African American vernacular

¶ … Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

The poem "We Real Cool" is written by Gwendolyn Brooks, a Topeka-born writer who discusses issues of social and historical significance in her poems. "We Real Cool" is included in Brooks' volume collection of poems entitled "Black," which was published in 1991. "We Real Cool" is a poem that depicts and discusses the life of young African-American men during the 1960s. The poem, although short and simple, depicts the lives of the African-Americans effectively through the use of different elements of poetry. This paper will analyze the poem and the elements used in it to create a better understanding of the meaning of Brooks in the poem, "We Real Cool."

In conducting the analysis of the poem, the primary thesis that that will be used in this paper is that: "We Real Cool" is a poem that utilizes the elements of tone, rhyme, and alliteration in its structure and allusion in its content to depict the life and culture of the African-American society. Note that the analysis concerns the structure and content of the poem, since a holistic view of the poem is needed to effectively illustrate and prove the thesis just stated.

The first analysis concerns the structure of the poem, particularly the use of tone, rhyming, and alliteration as tools in the poem to establish the theme of cultural depiction of the lives of African-Americans. The poem uses the tone of indifference and 'coolness,' in each line, which is evident in the 'incomplete' sentences used in the poem: "We real cool. We / Left school. We / Lurk late...." These lines show the culture of language in African-American society, which is composed of contracted words and phrases. By using incomplete but comprehensible phrases as lines in the poem, Brooks illustrates 'literally' the culture of language in African-American society. Further, rhyming is also used to make the poem 'catchy' and interesting to the audience. Rhyming is also effective in complementing the tone of the poem, and one is reminded of rap music that African-Americans popularized, which is a mark of the true African-American culture. Lastly, alliteration is used to provide a literary effect in the poem, and examples of these include the following: "Lurk late," "Strike straight," "Sing sin," and "Jazz June." The elements of tone, rhyming, and alliteration provide a lasting impression upon the reader since it makes the poem more lively, interesting, and catchy.